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University  of  California. 

FROM    THE    LIBRARY   OF 

D  R  .    F  R  A  N  C I  S     LIEBER,     ' 

Professor  of  History  and  Law  in  Columbia  College,  New  York. 

THK   GIFT   OK 

MICHAEL     REESE, 

Of  San  Francisco. 

1  8  7  3  . 

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U.S.   3Z<L  <Z.ono^'iA-%e^.>^Si.-nS% 


OBITUARY   ADDRESSES 


©trasion  of  %  §taf| 


HON.  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 


OF    MASSACHUSETTS, 

# 


SECRETARY  OF  STATE  FOR  THE  UNITED  STATES 


DELIVERED    IN    THE 


>ntate  ani  in  ilje  fame  at  tyt$mttihtx\M  0f 
Sfaitefc  States, 

FOURTEENTH  AND  FIFTEENTH  DECEMBER,  1852. 


WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED  BY  ROBERT  ARMSTRONG. 

1853. 


vS 


A^ 


/<?Z/ 


// 


fit  %  Btiwk  of  %  fhtto  States, 

December  20,  1852. 


On  motion  by  Mr.  G-win, 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  Printing  cause  to  be 
published,  and  bound  in  pamphlet  form,  in  such  manner  as 
may  seem  to  them  appropriate,  for  the  use  of  the  Senate,  ten 
thousand  copies  of  the  addresses  made  by  the  Members  of 
the  Senate  and  Members  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
together  with  so  much  of  the  Message  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  at  the  commencement  of  the  Session,  as 
relates  to  the  Death  of  the  Hon.  Daniel  Webster. 

Attest, 

ASBURY  DlCKINS, 

Secretary. 


eatjf  of  §n'ul  ffl&thttt. 


"Within  a  few  weeks,  the  public  mind  has  been  deeply- 
affected  by  the  death  of  Daniel  Webster,  filling,  at  his 
decease,  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State.  His  associates  in 
the  Executive  Government  have  sincerely  sympathized  with 
his  family,  and  the  public  generally,  on  this  mournful  occa- 
sion. His  commanding  talents,  his  great  political  and  pro- 
fessional eminence,  his  well-tried  patriotism,  and  his  long 
and  faithful  services  in  the  most  important  public  trusts, 
have  caused  his  death  to  be  lamented  throughout  the  country, 
and  have  earned  for  him  a  lasting  place  in  our  history." 

[Extract  from  the  President's  Message. 


©Mteg  %)ktm&. 


SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

Tuesday,  December  14,  1852. 

After  various  topics  of  the  Message  of  the  President  had 
been  referred  to  the  appropriate  Committees,  Mr.  Davis 
rose,  and  addressed  the  Senate  as  follows : 

Mr.  President  : — I  rise  to  bring  to  the  notice  of 
the  Senate  an  event  which  has  touched  the  sensi- 
bilities and  awakened  sympathies  in  all  parts  of  the 
country — an  event  which  has  appropriately  found  a 
place  in  the  message  of  the  President,  and  ought 
not  to  be  passed  in  silence  by  the  Senate.  Sir,  we 
have,  within  a  short  space,  mourned  the  death  of  a 
succession  of  men  illustrious  by  their  services,  their 
talents,  and  worth.  Not  only  have  seats  in  this 
Chamber,  in  the  other  House,  and  upon  the  bench 
of  the  Court  been  vacated,  but  death  has  entered 
the  Executive  Mansion  and  claimed  that  beloved 
patriot  who  filled  the  Chair  of  State. 


6 

The  portals  of  the  tomb  had  scarcely  closed  upon 
the  remains  of  a  great  and  gifted  member  of  this 
House,  before  they  are  again  opened  to  receive 
another  marked  man  of  our  day — one  who  stood 
out  with  a  singular  prominence  before  his  country- 
men, challenging,  by  his  extraordinary  intellectual 
power,  the  admiration  of  his  fellow-men. 

Daniel  Webster,  (a  name  familiar  in  the  re- 
motest cabin  upon  the  frontier,)  after  mixing 
actively  with  the  councils  of  his  country  for  forty 
years,  and  having  reached  the  limits  of  life  assigned 
to  mortals,  has  descended  to  the  mansions  of  the 
dead,  and  the  damp  earth  now  rests  upon  his 
manly  form. 

That  magic  voice  which  was  wont  to  fill  this 
place  with  admiring  listeners,  is  hushed  in  eternal 
silence.  The  multitude  will  no  longer  bend  in 
breathless  attention  from  the  galleries  to  catch  his 
words,  and  to  watch  the  speaking  eloquence  of 
his  countenance,  animated  by  the  fervor  of  his 
mind;  nor  will  the  Senate  again  be  instructed  by 
the  outpourings  of  his  profound  intellect,  matured 
by  long  experience,  and  enriched  by  copious 
streams  from  the  fountains  of  knowledge.  The 
thread  of  life  is  cut ;  the  immortal  is  separated 
from  the  mortal;  and  the  products  of  a  great  and 
cultivated  mind  are  all  that  remain  to  us  of  the 
jurist  and  legislator. 


Few  men  have  attracted  so  large  a  share  of 
public  attention,  or  maintained  for  so  long  a  period 
an  equal  degree  of  mental  distinction.  In  this 
and  the  other  House  there  were  rivals  for  fame, 
and  he  grappled  in  debate  with  the  master  minds 
of  the  day,  and  achieved  in  such  manly  con- 
flict the  imperishable  renown  connected  with  his 
name. 

Upon  most  of  the  questions  which  have  been 
agitated  in  Congress  during  his  period  of  service, 
his  voice  was  heard.  Few  orators  have  equalled 
him  in  a  masterly  power  of  condensation,  or  in 
that  clear  logical  arrangement  of  proofs  and  argu- 
ments which  secures  the  attention  of  the  hearer, 
and  holds  it  with  unabated  interest. 

These  speeches  have  been  preserved,  and  many 
of  them  will  be  read  as  forensic  models,  and  will 
command  admiration  for  their  great  display  of  intel- 
lectual power  and  extensive  research.  This  is  not 
a  suitable  occasion  to  discuss  the  merits  of  political 
productions,  or  to  compare  them  with  the  effusions 
of  great  contemporaneous  minds,  or  to  speak  of  the 
principles  advocated.  All  this  belongs  to  the  fu- 
ture, and  history  will  assign  each  great  name  the 
measure  of  its  enduring  fame. 

Mr.  Y^ebster  was  conspicuous  not  only  among 
the  most  illustrious  men  in  the  halls  of  legislation, 
but  his  fame  shone  with  undiminished  lustre  in  the 


8 

judicial  tribunals  as  an  advocate,  where  he  parti- 
cipated in  many  of  the  most  important  discussions. 
On  the  bench  were  Marshall,  Story,  and  their 
brethren — men  of  patient  research  and  compre- 
hensive scope  of  intellect — who  have  left  behind 
them,  in  our  judicial  annals,  proofs  of  greatness 
which  will  secure  profound  veneration  and  respect 
for  their  names.  At  the  bar  stood  Pinckney,  Wirt, 
Emmett,  and  many  others  who  adorned  and  gave 
exalted  character  to  the  profession.  Amid  these 
luminaries  of  the  bar  he  discussed  many  of  the 
great  questions  raised  in  giving  construction  to 
organic  law;  and  no  one  shone  with  more  intense 
brightness,  or  brought  into  the  conflict  of  mind 
more  learning,  higher  proofs  of  severe  mental  dis- 
cipline, or  more  copious  illustration. 

Among  such  men,  and  in  such  honorable  combat, 
the  foundations  of  that  critical  knowledge  of  consti- 
tutional law,  which  afterward  became  a  prominent 
feature  of  his  character,  and  entered  largely  into  his 
opinions  as  a  legislator,  were  laid. 

The  arguments  made  at  this  forum  displayed  a 
careful  research  into  the  history  of  the  formation  of 
the  Federal  Union,  and  an  acute  analysis  of  the 
fundamental  provisions  of  the  Constitution. 

Probably  no  man  has  penetrated  deeper  into  the 
principles,  or  taken  a  more  comprehensive  and  com- 
plete view  of  the  Union  of  the  States,  than  that  great 


e. 


9 

man,  Chief  Justice  Marshall.  No  question  was  so 
subtle  as  to  elude  his  grasp,  or  so  complex  as  to 
defy  his  penetration.  Even  the  great  and  the  learned 
esteemed  it  no  condescension  to  listen  to  the  teach- 
ings of  his  voice ;  and  no  one  profited  more  by  his 
wisdom,  or  more  venerated  his  character,  than  Mr. 
Webster. 

To  stand  among  such  men  with  marked  distinc- 
tion, as  did  Mr.  Webster,  is  an  association  which 
might  satisfy  any  ambition,  whatever  might  be  its 
aspirations.  But  there,  among  those  illustrious  men, 
who  have  finished  their  labors  and  gone  to  their 
final  homes,  he  made  his  mark  strong  and  deep, 
which  will  be  seen  and  traced  by  posterity. 

But  I  need  not  dwell  on  that  which  is  familiar  to 
all  readers  who  feel  an  interest  in  such  topics ;  nor 
need  I  notice  the  details  of  his  private  life — since 
hundreds  of  pens  have  been  employed  in  revealing 
all  the  facts,  and  in  describing,  in  the  most  vivid 
manner,  all  the  scenes  which  have  been  deemed 
attractive ;  nor  need  I  reiterate  the  fervent  language 
of  eulogy  which  has  been  poured  out  in  all  quarters 
from  the  press,  the  pulpit,  the  bar,  legislative  bodies, 
and  public  assemblies — since  his  own  productions 
constitute  his  best  eulogy. 

I  could  not,  if  I  were  to  attempt  it,  add  any  thing 
to  the  strength  or  beauty  of  the  manifold  evidences 
which    have    been   exhibited    of    the   length,   the 


m. 


10 

breadth,  and  height  of  his  fame;  nor  is  there  any 
occasion  for  such  proofs  in  the  Senate — the  place 
where  his  face  was  familiar,  where  many  of  his 
greatest  efforts  were  made,  and  where  his  intellec- 
tual powers  were  appreciated.  Here  he  was  seen 
and  heard,  and  nowhere  else  will  his  claim  to  great 
distinction  be  more  cheerfully  admitted. 

But  the  places  which  have  known  him  will  know 
him  no  more  !  His  form  will  never  rise  here  again ; 
his  voice  will  not  be  heard,  nor  his  expressive  coun- 
tenance seen.  He  is  dead.  In  his  last  moments  he 
was  surrounded  by  his  family  and  friends  at  his  own 
home;  and,  while  consoled  by  their  presence,  his 
spirit  took  its  flight  to  other  regions.  All  that  re- 
mained has  been  committed  to  its  kindred  earth. 

Divine  Providence  gives  us  illustrious  men,  but 
they,  like  others,  when  their  mission  is  ended,  yield 
to  the  inexorable  law  of  our  being.  He  who  gives 
also  takes  away,  but  never  forsakes  his  faithful 
children. 

The  places  of  those  possessing  uncommon  gifts 
are  vacated,  the  sod  rests  upon  the  once  manly 
form,  now  as  cold  and  lifeless  as  itself,  and  the 
living  are  filled  with  gloom  and  desolation.  But 
the  world  rolls  on ;  Nature  loses  none  of  its  charms ; 
the  sun  rises  with  undiminished  splendor ;  the  grass 
loses  none  of  its  freshness;  nor  do  the  flowers 
cease  to  fill  the  air  with  fragrance.     Nature,  un- 


11 

touched  by  human  woe,  proclaims  the  immutable 
law  of  Providence,  that  decay  follows  growth,  and 
that  He  who  takes  away  never  fails  to  give. 

Sir,  I  propose  the  following  resolutions,  believing 
that  they  will  meet  the  cordial  approbation  of  the 
Senate  : 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  has  received  with  profound 
sensibility  the  annunciation  from  the  President  of  the  death 
of  the  late  Secretary  of  State,  Daniel  Webster,  who  was 
long  a  highly  distinguished  member  of  this  body. 

Resolved^  That  the  Senate  will  manifest  its  respect  for 
the  memory  of  the  deceased,  and  its  sympathy  with  his  be- 
reaved family,  by  wearing  the  usual  badge  of  mourning  for 
thirty  days. 

Resolved,  That  these  proceedings  be  communicated  to  the 
House  of  Representatives. 

MR.  BUTLER. 

Mr.  President: — This  is  an  occasion  full  of 
interesting  but  melancholy  associations,  and  one 
that  especially  appeals  to  my  feelings  and  sense  of 
justice — I  might  almost  say  historical  justice — as  a 
representative  of  South  Carolina.  Who,  that  were 
present,  can  ever  forget  the  mournful  and  imposing 
occasion  when  Daniel  Webster,  whose  eloquence 
and  ability  had  given  distinction  to  the  greatest  de- 
liberative assembly  and  the  most  august  tribunal  of 
justice  in  this  great  confederacy;  and  when  Henry 
Clay — a  name  associated  with  all  that  is  daring  in 


12 

action  and  splendid  in  eloquence — rose  as  witnesses 
before  the  tribunal  of  history,  and  gave  their  testi- 
mony as  to  the  character  and  services  of  their  illus- 
trious compeer,  John  Caldwell  Calhoun  ?  They 
embalmed  in  historical  immortality  their  rival, 
associate,  and  comrade. 

I  would  that  I  could  borrow  from  the  spirit  of 
my  great  countryman  something  of  its  justice  and 
magnanimity,  that  I  might  make  some  requital  for 
the  distinguished  tributes  paid  to  his  memory  by  his 
illustrious  compeers.  Such  an  occasion  as  the  one  I 
have  referred  to,  is  without  parallel  in  the  history 
of  this  Senate;  and,  sir,  I  fear  that  there  is  no  future 
for  such  another  one.  Calhoun,  Clay,  and  Webster 
— like  Pitt,  Fox,  and  Burke — have  made  a  picture 
on  our  history  that  will  be  looked  upon  as  its  cul- 
minating splendor.  They  were  luminaries  that,  in 
many  points  of  view,  essentially  differed  from  each 
other,  as  one  star  differeth  from  another ;  but  they 
were  all  stars  of  the  first  magnitude.  Distance  can- 
not destroy,  nor  can  time  diminish  the  simple  splen- 
dor of  their  light  for  the  guidance  and  instruction 
of  an  admiring  posterity. 

Kivals  they  were  on  a  great  and  eventful  theatre 
of  political  life ;  but  death  has  given  them  a  com- 
mon fame. 

Eadem  arena,  » 

Communis  virtus,  atque  perennis  decus, 
Victrix  causa  parem  meritis  et  victa  favorem 
Vindicat,  jcternum  vivere  fama  dedit. 


13 


Their  contest  in  life  was  for  the  awards  of  public 
opinion — the  great  lever  in  modern  times  by  which 
nations  are  to  be  moved. 


"With  more  than  mortal  powers  endow'd, 
How  high  they  soar'd  above  the  crowd ! 
Theirs  was  no  common  party  race, 
Jostling  by  dark  intrigue  for  place : 
Like  fabled  gods,  their  mighty  war 
Shook  realms  and  nations  in  its  jar  !" 


Before  I  became  a  member  of  the  Senate,  of 
which  I  found  Mr.  Webster  a  distinguished  orna- 
ment, I  had  formed  a  very  high  estimate  of  his 
abilities — and  from  various  sources  of  high  autho- 
rity. His  mind,  remarkable  for  its  large  capacity, 
was  enriched  with  rare  endowments — with  the 
knowledge  of  a  statesman,  the  learning  of  a  jurist, 
and  the  attainments  of  a  scholar.  In  this  Cham- 
ber, with  unsurpassed  ability,  Mr.  Webster  has  dis- 
cussed the  greatest  subjects  that  have  influenced,  or 
can  influence,  the  destinies  of  this  great  confede- 
racy. Well  may  I  apply  to  him  the  striking  re- 
mark which  he  bestowed  on  Mr.  Calhoun :  "  We 
saw  before  us  a  senator  of  Rome,  when  Eome  sur- 
vived." 

I  have  always  regarded  Mr.  Webster  as  a  noble 
model  of  a  parliamentary  debater.     His  genial  tem- 
per, the  courtesy  and  dignity  of  his  deportment,  his 
profound  knowledge  of  his  subject,  and  his  thorough 


14 

preparation,  not  only  gave  him  a  great  command 
over  his  immediate  audience,  but  gave  his  masterly 
speeches  an  impressive  influence  upon  public  opinion. 

In  the  Supreme  Court,  Mr.  Webster  was  engaged 
in  the  greatest  cases  that  were  ever  decided  by  that 
tribunal;  and  it  is  not  saying  too  much  to  assert 
that  his  arguments  formed  the  basis  of  some  of  the 
ablest  judgments  of  that  court.  His  exuberant  but 
rectified  imagination,  and  brilliant  literary  attain- 
ments, imparted  to  his  eloquence  beauty,  simplicity, 
and  majesty,  and  the  finish  of  taste  and  elaboration. 
He  seemed  to  prefer  the  more  deliberative  style  of 
speaking;  but,  when  roused  and  assailed,  he  became 
a  formidable  adversary  in  the  war  of  debate,  dis- 
charging from  his  full  quiver  the  arrows  of  sarcasm 
and  invective  with  telling  effect. 

Mr.  Webster  was  born  in  a  forest,  and,  in  his 
childhood  and  youth,  lived  amid  the  scenes  of  rural 
life ;  and  it  was  no  doubt  under  their  inspiring  in- 
fluence that  he  imbibed  that  love  of  Nature  which 
has  given  such  a  charm  and  touching  pathos  to  some 
of  his  meditative  productions.  It  always  struck  me 
that  he  had  something  of  Burns's  nature,  but  con- 
trolled by  the  discipline  of  a  higher  education. 
Lifted  above  the  ordinary  level  of  mankind  by  his 
genius  and  intelligence*  Mr.  Webster  looked  upon 
a  more  extensive  horizon  than  could  be  seen  by 
those  below  him.  He  had  too  much  information, 
from  his  large  and  varied  intercourse  with  great 


15 

men,  and  his  acquaintance  with  the  opinions  of  all 
ages  through  the  medium  of  books,  to  allow  the 
spirit  of  bigotry  to  have  a  place  in  his  mind.  I 
have  many  reasons  to  conclude  that  he  was  not  only 
tolerant  of  the  opinions  of  others,  but  was  even 
generous  in  his  judgments  toward  them.  I  will  con- 
clude by  saying  that  New  England,  especially,  and 
the  confederacy  at  large,  have  cause  to  be  proud  of 
the  fame  of  such  a  man. 

MR.  CASS. 

Mr.  President  : — How  are  the  mighty  fallen  ! 
was  the  pathetic  lamentation  when  the  leaders  of 
Israel  were  struck  down  in  the  midst  of  their  ser- 
vices and  of  their  renown.  Well  may  we  repeat 
that  national  wail,  How  are  the  mighty  fallen! 
when  the  impressive  dispensations  of  Providence 
have  so  recently  carried  mourning  to  the  hearts  of 
the  American  people,  by  summoning  from  life  to 
death  three  of  their  eminent  citizens,  who,  for  almost 
half  a  century,  had  taken  part — and  prominently, 
too — in  all  the  great  questions,  as  well  of  peace  as 
of  war,  which  agitated  and  divided  their  country. 
Full,  indeed,  they  were  of  days  and  of  honors,  for 

"The  hand  of  the  reaper 
Took  the  ears  that  were  hoary/' 

but  never  brighter  in  intellect,  purer  in  patriotism, 
nor  more  powerful  in  influence,  than  when  the  grave 


16 

closed  upon  their  labors,  leaving  their  memory  and 
their  career  at  once  an  incentive  and  an  example 
for  their  countrymen  in  that  long  course  of  trial — 
but  I  trust  of  freedom  and  prosperity,  also — which 
is  open  before  us.  Often  divided  in  life,  but  only  by 
honest  convictions  of  duty,  followed  in  a  spirit  of 
generous  emulation,  and  not  of  personal  opposition, 
they  are  now  united  in  death,  and  we  may  appro- 
priately adopt,  upon  this  striking  occasion,  the  beau- 
tiful language  addressed  to  the  people  of  England 
by  one  of  her  most  gifted  sons,  when  they  were 
called  to  mourn,  as  we  are  called  now,  a  bereave- 
ment which  spread  sorrow — dismay  almost — through 
the  nation,  and  under  circumstances  of  difficulty  and 
of  danger  far  greater  than  any  we  can  now  reason- 
ably anticipate  in  the  progress  of  our  history : 

"  Seek  not  for  those  a  separate  doom, 
Whom  fate  made  brothers  in  the  tomb; 
But  search  the  land  of  living  men: 
Where  shall  we  find  their  like  again  f 

And  to-day,  in  the  consideration  of  the  message 
of  the  Chief  Magistrate,  it  becomes  us  to  respond  to 
his  annunciation — commending  itself,  as  it  does,  to 
the  universal  sentiment  of  the  country — of  the  death 
of  the  last  of  these  lamented  statesmen,  as  a  national 
misfortune.  This  mark  of  respect  and  regret  was 
due  alike  to  the  memory  of  the  dead  and  to  the  feel- 


17 

ings  of  the  living.  And  I  have  listened  with  deep 
emotion  to  the  eloquent  testimonials  to  the  mental 
power,  and  worth,  and  services  of  the  departed  pa- 
triot, which  to-day  have  been  heard  in  this  high 
place,  and  will  be  heard  to-morrow,  and  commended, 
too,  by  the  American  people.  The  voice  of  party  is 
hushed  in  the  presence  of  such  a  national  calamity, 
and  the  grave  closes  upon  the  asperity  of  political 
contests  when  it  closes  upon  those  who  have  taken 
part  in  them.  And  well  may  we,  who  have  so  often 
witnessed  his  labors  and  his  triumphs — well  may 
we,  here,  upon  this  theatre  of  his  services  and  his 
renown,  recalling  the  efforts  of  his  mighty  under- 
standing, and  the  admiration  which  always  followed 
its  exertion — well  may  we  come  with  our  tribute  of 
acknowledgment  to  his  high  and  diversified  powers, 
and  to  the  influence  he  exercised  upon  his  auditory, 
and,  in  fact,  upon  his  country.  He  was,  indeed,  one 
of  those  remarkable  men  who  stand  prominently 
forward  upon  the  canvas  of  history,  impressing 
their  characteristics  upon  the  age  in  which  they 
live,  and  almost  making  it  their  own  by  the  force 
of  their  genius  and  by  the  splendor  of  their  fame. 
The  time  which  elapsed  between  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  and  our  own  day  was  prolific  of 
great  events  and  of  distinguished  men,  who  guided 
or  were  guided  by  them,  far  beyond  any  other  equal 
period  in  the  history  of  human  society.  But,  in  my 
opinion,  even  this  favored  epoch  has  produced  no 


18 


man  possessing  a  more  massive  and  gigantic  intel- 
lect, or  who  exhibited  more  profound  powers  of  in- 
vestigation in  the  great  department  of  political 
science  to  which  he  devoted  himself,  in  all  its  va- 
rious ramifications,  than  Daniel  Webster. 

The  structure  of  his  mind  seemed  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  work  he  was  called  upon  to  do,  and 
he  did  it  as  no  other  man  of  his  country — of  his  age, 
indeed — could  have  done  it.  And  his  name  and  his 
fame  are  indissolubly  connected  with  some  of  the 
most  difficult  and  important  questions  which  our  pe- 
culiar institutions  have  called  into  discussion.  It 
was  my  good  fortune  to  hear  him  upon  one  of  the 
most  memorable  of  these  occasions,  when,  in  this 
very  hall,  filled  to  overflowing  with  an  audience 
whose  rapt  attention  indicated  his  power  and  their 
expectations,  he  entered  into  an  analysis  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and  of  the  great  principles  of  our  political 
organization,  with  a  vigor  of  argument,  a  force  of 
illustration,  and  a  felicity  of  diction,  which  have 
rendered  this  effort  of  his  mind  one  of  the  proudest 
monuments  of  American  genius,  and  one  of  the  no- 
blest expositions  which  the  operations  of  our  govern- 
ment have  called  forth.  I  speak  of  its  general  effect, 
without  concurring  in  all  the  views  he  presented, 
though  the  points  of  difference  neither  impair  my 
estimate  of  the  speaker  nor  of  the  power  he  dis- 
played in  this  elaborate  debate. 

The  judgment  of  his  contemporaries  upon  the  cha- 


19 

racter  of  his  eloquence  will  be  confirmed  by  the  fu- 
ture historian.  He  grasped  the  questions  involved 
in  the  subject  before  him  with  a  rare  union  of  force 
and  discrimination,  and  he  presented  them  in  an 
order  of  arrangement,  marked  at  once  with  great 
perspicuity  and  with  logical  acuteness,  so  that,  when 
he  arrived  at  his  conclusion,  he  seemed  to  reach  it 
by  a  process  of  established  propositions,  interwoven 
with  the  hand  of  a  master;  and  topics,  barren  of 
attraction,  from  their  nature,  were  rendered  inte- 
resting by  illustrations  and  allusions,  drawn  from  a 
vast  storehouse  of  knowledge,  and  applied  with  a 
chastened  taste,  formed  upon  the  best  models  of  an- 
cient and  of  modern  learning;  and  to  these  eminent 
qualifications  was  added  an  uninterrupted  flow  of 
rich  and  often  racy  old-fashioned  English,  worthy  of 
the  earlier  masters  of  the  language,  whom  he  studied 
and  admired. 

As  a  statesman  and  politician  his  power  was  felt 
and  acknowledged  through  the  republic,  and  all  bore 
willing  testimony  to  his  enlarged  views,  and  to  his 
ardent  patriotism.  And  he  acquired  a  European 
reputation  by  the  state-papers  he  prepared  upon 
various  questions  of  our  foreign  policy ;  and  one  of 
these — his  refutation  and  exposure  of  an  absurd  and 
arrogant  pretension  of  Austria — is  distinguished  by 
lofty  and  generous  sentiments,  becoming  the  age  in 
which  he  lived,  and  the  great  people  in  whose  name 
he  spoke,  and  is  stamped  with  a  vigor  and  research 


20 

not  less  honorable  in  the  exhibition  than  conclusive 
in  the  application ;  and  it  will  ever  take  rank  in  the 
history  of  diplomatic  intercourse  among  the  richest 
contributions  to  the  commentaries  upon  the  public 
law  of  the  world.  And  in  internal  as  in  external 
troubles  he  was  true,  and  tried,  and  faithful;  and  in 
the  latest,  may  it  be  the  last,  as  it  was  the  most 
perilous,  crisis  of  our  country,  rejecting  all  sectional 
considerations,* and  exposing  himself  to  sectional  de- 
nunciation, he  stood  up  boldly,  proudly,  indeed,  and 
with  consummate  ability,  for  the  constitutional 
rights  of  another  portion  of  the  Union,  fiercely  as- 
sailed by  a  spirit  of  aggression,  as  incompatible  with 
our  mutual  obligations  as  with  the  duration  of  the 
confederation  itself.  In  that  dark  and  doubtful 
hour,  his  voice  was  heard  above  the  storm,  recalling 
his  countrymen  to  a  sense  of  their  dangers  and 
their  duties,  and  tempering  the  lessons  of  reproof 
with  the  experience  of  age  and  the  dictates  of  pa- 
triotism. 

He  who  heard  his  memorable  appeal  to  the  public 
reason  and  conscience,  made  in  this  crowded  Cham- 
ber, with  all  eyes  fixed  upon  the  speaker,  and 
almost  all  hearts  swayed  by  his  words  of  wisdom 
and  of  power,  will  sedulously  guard  its  recollections 
as  one  of  those  precious  incidents  which,  while  they 
constitute  the  poetry  of  history,  exert  a  permanent 
and  decisive  influence  upon  the  destiny  of  nations. 

And  our  deceased  colleague  added  the  kindlier 


21 

affections  of  the  heart  to  the  lofty  endowments  of 
the  mind;  and  I  recall,  with  almo*st  painful  sensi- 
bility, the  associations  of  our  boyhood,  when  we 
were  school-fellows  together,  with  all  the  troubles 
and  the  pleasures  which  belong  to  that  relation  of 
life,  in  its  narrow  world  of  preparation.  He  ren- 
dered himself  dear  by  his  disposition  and  deport- 
ment, and  exhibited  some  of  those  peculiar  charac- 
teristic features,  which,  later  in  life,  made  him  the 
ornament  of  the  social  circle ;  and,  when  study  and 
knowledge  of  the  world  had  ripened  his  faculties, 
endowed  him  with  powers  of  conversation  I  have 
not  found  surpassed  in  my  intercourse  with  society, 
at  home  or  abroad.  His  conduct  and  bearing  at 
that  early  period  have  left  an  enduring  impression 
upon  my  memory  of  mental  traits,  which  his  subse- 
quent course  in  life  developed  and  confirmed.  And 
the  commanding  position  and  ascendency  of  the  man 
were  foreshadowed  by  the  standing  and  influence  of 
the  boy  among  the  comrades  who  surrounded  him. 
Fifty-five  years  ago  we  parted — he  to  prepare  for  his 
splendid  career  in  the  good  old  land  of  our  ances- 
tors, and  I  to  encounter  the  rough  toils  and  trials  of 
life  in  the  great  forest  of  the  West.  But,  ere  long, 
the  report  of  his  words  and  his  deeds  penetrated 
those  recesses,  where  human  industry  was  painfully, 
but  successfully,  contending  with  the  obstacles  of 
Nature,  and  I  found  that  my  early  companion  was 
assuming  a  position  which  confirmed  my  previous 


22 

anticipations,  and  which  could  only  be  attained  by 
the  rare  faculties  with  which  he  was  gifted.  Since 
then  he  has  gone  on  irradiating  his  path  with  the 
splendor  of  his  exertions,  till  the  whole  hemisphere 
was  bright  with  his  glory,  and  never  brighter  than 
when  he  went  down  in  the  West,  without  a  cloud  to 
obscure  his  lustre,  calm,  clear,  and  glorious.  Fortu- 
nate in  life  he  was  not  less  fortunate  in  death,  for  he 
died  with  his  fame  undiminished,  his  faculties  un- 
broken, and  his  usefulness  unimpaired ;  surrounded 
by  weeping  friends,  and  regarded  with  anxious  solici- 
tude by  a  grateful  country,  to  whom  the  messenger 
that  mocks  at  time  and  space  told,  from  hour  to  hour, 
the  progress  of  his  disorder,  and  the  approach  of  his 
fate.  And  beyond  all  this,  he  died  in  the  faith  of  a 
Christian,  humble,  but  hopeful,  adding  another  to  the 
roll  of  eminent  men  who  have  searched  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus,  and  have  found  it  the  word  and  the  will  of  God, 
given  to  direct  us  while  here,  and  to  sustain  us  in  that 
hour  of  trial,  when  the  things  of  this  world  are  passing 
away,  and  the  dark  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death 
is  opening  before  us. 

How  are  the  mighty  fallen!  we  may  yet  ex- 
claim, when  reft  of  our  greatest  and  wisest;  but 
they  fall  to  rise  again  from  death  to  life,  when  such 
quickening  faith  in  the  mercy  of  God  and  in  the 
sacrifice  of  the  Redeemer  comes  to  shed  upon  them 
its  happy  influence,  on  this  side  of  the  grave  and 
beyond  it. 


23 

MR.  SEWARD. 

When,  in  passing  through  Savoy,  I  reached  the 
eminence  where  the  traveller  is  promised  his  first 
distinct  view  of  Mont  Blanc,  I  asked,  "Where  is 
the  mountain?"  "There,"  said  the  guide,  pointing 
to  the  rainy  sky  which  stretched  out  before  me.  It 
is  even  so  when  we  approach  and  attempt  to  scan 
accurately  a  great  character.  Clouds  gather  upon 
it,  and  seem  to  take  it  up  out  of  our  sight. 

Daniel  Webster  was  a  man  of  warm  and  earnest 
affections  in  all  the  domestic  and  social  relations. 
Purely  incidental  and  natural  allusions  in  his  con- 
versations, letters,  and  speeches,  have  made  us  fami- 
liar with  the  very  pathways  about  his  early  moun- 
tain home ;  with  his  mother,  graceful,  intellectual, 
fond,  and  pious ;  with  his  father,  assiduous,  patriotic, 
and  religious,  changing  his  pursuits,  as  duty  in  revo- 
lutionary times  commanded,  from  the  farm  to  the 
camp,  and  from  the  camp  to  the  provincial  legisla- 
ture and  the  constituent  assembly.  It  seems  as  if 
we  could  recognise  the  very  form  and  features  of 
the  most  constant  and  generous  of  brothers.  Nor 
are  we  strangers  at  Marshfield.  We  are  guests  hos- 
pitably admitted,  and  then  left  to  wander  at  our 
ease  under  the  evergreens  on  the  lawn,  over  the 
grassy  fields,  through  the  dark,  native  forest,  and 
along  the  resounding  sea-shore.  We  know,  almost 
as  well  as  we  know  our  own,  the  children  reared 


24 

there,  and  fondly  loved,  and  therefore,  perhaps,  early 
lost;  the  servants  bought  from  bondage,  and  held 
by  the  stronger  chains  of  gratitude ;  the  careful 
steward,  always  active,  yet  never  hurried;  the  re- 
verent neighbor,  always  welcome,  yet  never  obtru- 
sive ;  and  the  ancient  fisherman,  whose  little  fleet  is 
ever  ready  for  the  sports  of  the  sea ;  and  we  meet 
on  every  side  the  watchful  and  devoted  friends 
whom  no  frequency  of  disappointment  can  discou- 
rage, and  whom  even  the  death  of  their  great  patron 
cannot  all  at  once  disengage  from  efforts  which 
know  no  balancing  of  probabilities  nor  reckoning  of 
cost  to  secure  his  elevation  to  the  first  honors  of  the 
republic. 

Who  that  was  even  confessedly  provincial  was 
ever  so  identified  with  any  thing  local  as  Daniel 
Webster  was  with  the  spindles  of  Lowell,  and  the 
quarries  of  Quincy ;  with  Faneuil  Hall,  Bunker  Hill, 
Forefathers'  Day,  Plymouth  Rock,  and  whatever 
also  belonged  to  Massachusetts?  And  yet,  who 
that  was  most  truly  national  has  ever  so  sublimely 
celebrated,  or  so  touchingly  commended  to  our  re- 
verent affection  our  broad  and  ever-broadening  con- 
tinental home;  its  endless  rivers,  majestic  moun- 
tains, and  capacious  lakes ;  its  inimitable  and  inde- 
scribable constitution;  its  cherished  and  growing 
capital ;  its  aptly  conceived  and  expressive  flag,  and 
its  triumphs  by  land  and  sea;    and  its  immortal 


25 

founders,  heroes,  and  martyrs !  How  manifest  it 
was,  too,  that,  unlike  those  who  are  impatient  of 
slow  but  sure  progress,  he  loved  his  country,  not 
for  something  greater  or  higher  than  he  desired  or 
hoped  she  might  be,  but  just  for  what  she  was,  and 
as  she  was  already,  regardless  of  future  change. 

No,  sir ;  believe  me,  they  err  widely  who  say  that 
Daniel  Webster  was  cold  and  passionless.  It  is 
true  that  he  had  little  enthusiasm;  but  he  was, 
nevertheless,  earnest  and  sincere,  as  well  as  calm; 
and,  therefore,  he  was  both  discriminating  and  com- 
prehensive in  his  affections.  We  recognise  his  like- 
ness in  the  portrait  drawn  by  a  Koman  pencil : 

u  who  with  nice  discernment  knows 


"What  to  his  country  and  his  friends  he  owes; 
How  various  Nature  warms  the  human  breast, 
To  love  the  parent,  brother,  friend,  or  guest, 
What  the  great  offices  of  judges  are, 
Of  senators,  of  generals  sent  to  war." 

Daniel  Webster  was  cheerful,  and  on  becoming 
occasions  joyous,  and  even  mirthful;  but  he  was 
habitually  engaged  in  profound  studies  on  great 
affairs.  He  was,  moreover,  constitutionally  fearful 
of  the  dangers  of  popular  passion  and  prejudice; 
and  so,  in  public  walk,  conversation,  and  debate,  he 
was  grave  and  serious,  even  to  solemnity;  yet  he 
never  desponded  in  the  darkest  hours  of  personal  or 


26 

political  trial;  and  melancholy  never,  in  health  nor 
even  in  sickness,  spread  a  pall  over  his  spirits. 

It  must  have  been  very  early  that  he  acquired 
that  just  estimate  of  his  own  powers  which  was  the 
basis  of  a  self-reliance  which  all  the  world  saw  and 
approved,  and  which,  while  it  betrayed  no  feature 
of  vanity,  none  but  a  superficial  observer  could  have 
mistaken  for  pride  or  arrogance. 

Daniel  Webster  was  no  sophist.  With  a  talent 
for  didactic  instruction  which  might  have  excused 
dogmatism,  he  never  lectured  on  the  questions  of 
morals  that  are  agitated  in  the  schools.  But  he 
seemed,  nevertheless,  to  have  acquired  a  philosophy 
of  his  own,  and  to  have  made  it  the  rule  and  guide 
of  his  life.  That  philosophy  consisted  in  improving 
his  powers  and  his  tastes,  so  that  he  might  appre- 
ciate whatever  was  good  and  beautiful  in  nature 
and  art,  and  attain  to  whatever  was  excellent  in 
conduct.  He  had  accurate  perceptions  of  the  quali- 
ties and  relations  of  things.  He  overvalued  nothing 
that  was  common,  and  undervalued  nothing  that 
was  useful,  or  even  ornamental.  His  lands,  his 
cattle,  and  equipage,  his  dwelling,  library,  and  ap- 
parel, his  letters,  arguments,  and  orations — every 
thing  that  he  had,  every  thing  that  he  made,  and 
every  thing  that  he  did — was,  as  far  as  possible, 
fit,  complete,  perfect.  He  thought  decorous  forms 
necessary   for  preserving  whatever  was  substantial 


27 

or  valuable  in  politics  and  morals,  and  even  in  reli- 
gion. In  his  regard,  order  was  the  first  law,  and 
peace  the  chief  blessing  of  earth,  as  they  are  of 
Heaven.  Therefore,  while  he  desired  justice  and 
loved  liberty,  he  reverenced  law  as  the  first  divinity 
of  states  and  of  society. 

Daniel  Webster  was,  indeed,  ambitious  ;  but  his 
ambition  was  generally  subordinate  to  conventional 
forms,  and  always  to  the  Constitution.  He  aspired 
to  place  and  preferment,  but  not  for  the  mere 
exercise  of  political  power,  and  still  less  for  plea- 
surable indulgences ;  and  only  for  occasions  to  save 
or  serve  his  country,  and  for  the  fame  which  such 
noble  actions  might  bring.  Who  will  censure  such 
ambition?  Who  had  greater  genius  subjected  to 
severer  discipline?  What  other  motives  than  those 
of  ambition  could  have  brought  that  genius  into 
activity  under  that  discipline,  and  sustained  that 
activity  so  equally  under  ever-changing  circum- 
stances so  long?  His  ambition  never  fell  off  into 
presumption.  He  was,  on  the  contrary,  content 
with  performing  all  practical  duties,  even  in  com- 
mon affairs,  in  the  best  possible  manner;  and  he 
never  chafed  under  petty  restraints  from  those 
above,  nor  malicious  annoyances  from  those  around 
him.  If  ever  any  man  had  intellectual  superiority 
which  could  have  excused  a  want  of  deference  due 
to  human  authority,  or  skepticism  concerning  that 


28 

which  was  divine,  he  was  such  a  one.  Yet  he  was, 
nevertheless,  unassuming  and  courteous,  here  and 
elsewhere,  in  the  public  councils ;  and  there  was,  I 
think,  never  a  time  in  his  life  when  he  was  not  an 
unquestioning  believer  in  that  religion  which  offers 
to  the  meek  the  inheritance  of  the  heavenly 
kingdom. 

Daniel  Webster's  mind  was  not  subtle,  but  it 
was  clear.  It  was  surpassingly  logical  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  induction,  and  equally  vigorous  and  ener- 
getic in  all  its  movements ;  and  yet  he  possessed  an 
imagination  so  strong  that  if  it  had  been  combined 
with  even  a  moderated  enthusiasm  of  temper, 
would  have  overturned  the  excellent  balance  of 
his  powers. 

The  civilian  rises  in  this,  as  in  other  republics, 
by  the  practice  of  eloquence ;  and  so  Daniel  Web- 
ster became  an  orator — the  first  of  orators. 

Whatever  else  concerning  him  has  been  contro- 
verted by  anybody,  the  fifty  thousand  lawyers  of 
the  United  States,  interested  to  deny  his  preten- 
sions, conceded  to  him  an  unapproachable  supre- 
macy at  the  bar.  How  did  he  win  that  high  place? 
Where  others  studied  laboriously,  he  meditated  in- 
tensely. Where  others  appealed  to  the  prejudices 
and  passions  of  courts  and  juries,  he  addressed  only 
their  understandings.  Where  others  lost  them- 
selves among  the  streams,  he  ascended  to  the  foun- 


29 

tain.  While  they  sought  the  rules  of  law  among 
conflicting  precedents,  he  found  them  in  the  eternal 
principles  of  reason  and  justice. 
(jBut  it  is  conceding  too  much  to  the  legal  pro- 
fession to  call  Daniel  Webster  a  lawyer.  Law- 
yers speak  for  clients  and  their  interests — he 
seemed  always  to  be  speaking  for  his  country  and 
for  truth.  )So  he  rose  imperceptibly  above  his  pro- 
fession; and  while  yet  in  the  Forum,  he  stood 
before  the  world  a  Publicist.  In  this  felicity,  he 
resembled,  while  he  surpassed,  Erskine,  who  taught 
the  courts  at  Westminster  the  law  of  moral  re- 
sponsibility; and  he  approached  Hamilton,  who 
educated  the  courts  at  Washington  in  the  Con- 
stitution of  their  country  and  the  philosophy  of 
government. 

An  undistinguishable  line  divides  this  high  pro- 
vince of  the  Forum  from  the  Senate,  to  which  his 
philosophy  and  eloquence  were  perfectly  adapted. 
Here,  in  times  of  stormy  agitation  and  bewilder- 
ing excitement,  when  as  yet  the  Union  of  these 
States  seemed  not  to  have  been  cemented  and  con- 
solidated, and  its  dissolution  seemed  to  hang,  if  not 
on  the  immediate  result  of  the  debate,  at  least  upon 
the  popular  passion  that  that  result  must  generate, 
Daniel  Webster  put  forth  his  mightiest  efforts — 
confessedly  the  greatest  ever  put  forth  here  or  on 
this    continent.      Those    efforts    produced    marked 


-» 


30 


£& 


effect  on  the  Senate ;  they  soothed  the  public  mind, 
and  became  enduring  lessons  of  instruction  to  our 
countrymen  on  the  science  of  constitutional  law, 
and  the  relative  powers  and  responsibilities  of  the 
government,  and  the  rights  and  duties  of  the  States 
and  of  citizens. 

Tried  by  ancient  definitions,  Daniel  Webster 
was  not  an  orator.  He  studied  no  art  and  prac- 
tised no  action.  Nor  did  he  form  himself  by 
any  admitted  model.  He  had  neither  the  di- 
rectness and  vehemence  of  Demosthenes,  nor  the 
fulness  nor  flow  of  Cicero,  nor  the  intenseness  of 
Milton,  nor  the  magnificence  of  Burke.  It  was 
happy  for  him  that  he  had  not.  The  temper  and 
tastes  of  his  age  and  country  required  eloquence 
different  from  all  these,  and  they  found  it  in 
the  pure  logic  and  the  vigorous  yet  massive 
rhetoric  which  constituted  the  style  of  Daniel 
Webster. 

Daniel  Webster,  although  a  statesman,  did  not 
aim  to  be  either  a  popular  or  a  parliamentary 
leader.  He  left  common  affairs  and  questions  to 
others,  and  reserved  himself  for  those  great  and 
infrequent  occasions  which  seemed  to  involve  the 
prosperity  or  the  continuance  of  the  republic. 
On  these  occasions  he  rose  above  partisan  influences 
and  alliances,  and  gave  his  counsels  earnestly,  and 
with  impassioned  solemnity,  and  always  with  an 


31 

unaffected  reliance  upon  the  intelligence  and  virtue 
of  his  countrymen. 

The  first  revolutionary  assembly  that  convened 
in  Boston  promulgated  the  principle  of  the  revolu- 
tion of  1688 — "  Resistance  to  unjust  laws  is  obe- 
dience to  God ;"  and  it  became  the  watchword 
throughout  the  colonies.  Under  that  motto  the 
colonies  dismembered  the  British  Empire,  and 
erected  the  American  Republic.  At  an  early  day, 
it  seemed  to  Daniel  Webster  that  the  habitual 
cherishing  of  that  principle,  after  its  great  work 
had  been  consummated,  threatened  to  subvert,  in 
its  turn,  the  free  and  beneficent  Constitution,  which 
afforded  the  highest  attainable  security  against  the 
passage  of  unjust  laws.  He  addressed  himself 
therefore  assiduously,  and  almost  alone,  to  what 
seemed  to  him  the  duty  of  calling  the  American 
people  back  from  revolutionary  theories  to  the 
formation  of  habits  of  peace,  order,  and  submission 
to  authority.  He  inculcated  the  duty  of  submis- 
sion by  States  and  citizens  to  all  laws  passed  within 
the  province  of  constitutional  authority,  and  of  abso- 
lute reliance  on  constitutional  remedies  for  the  cor- 
rection of  all  errors  and  the  redress  of  all  injustice. 
This  was  the  political  gospel  of  Daniel  Webster. 
He  preached  it  in  season  and  out  of  season,  boldly, 
constantly,  with  the  zeal  of  an  apostle,  and  with 
the  devotion,  if  there  were  need,  of  a  martyr.     It 


32 

was  full  of  saving  influences  while  he  lived,  and 
those  influences  will  last  so  long  as  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union  shall  endure. 

I  do  not  dwell  on  Daniel  Webster's  exercise 
of  administrative  functions.  It  was  marked  by  the 
same  ability  that  distinguished  all  his  achievements 
in  other  fields  of  duty.  It  was  at  the  same  time 
eminently  conservative  of  peace,  and  of  the  great 
principles  of  constitutional  liberty,  on  which  the 
republican  institutions  of  his  country  were  founded. 
But  while  those  administrative  services  benefited 
his  country,  and  increased  his  fame,  we  all  felt, 
nevertheless,  that  his  proper  and  highest  place  was 
here,  where  there  was  field  and  scope  for  his  philo- 
sophy and  his  eloquence — here,  among  the  equal 
representatives  of  equal  States,  which  were  at  once 
to  be  held  together,  and  to  be  moved  on  in  the  esta- 
blishment of  a  continental  power  controlling  all  the 
American  States,  and  balancing  those  of  the  Eastern 
world ;  and  we  could  not  but  exclaim,  in  the  words 
of  the  Koman  orator,  when  we  saw  him  leave 
the  legislative  councils  to  enter  on  the  office  of 
administration — 

Quantis  in  angustiis,  vestra  gloria  se  dilitari  velit. 

MR.  STOCKTON. 

Mr.  President  : — I  was  prevented  from  coming 
to  Washington  until  this  morning.     After  travelling 


33 

all  night,  I  hastened  here  to  take  my  seat,  wholly 
unapprized  of  the  intention  of  the  senator  from 
Massachusetts  to  introduce  the  resolutions  now  be- 
fore the  Senate. 

It  would,  therefore,  not  become  me,  nor  the  so- 
lemnity of  the  occasion,  to  mingle,  unprepared  as  I 
needs  must  be,  my  voice  in  the  eloquent  lamenta- 
tion which  does  honor  to  the  Senate,  for  any  other 
purpose  than  merely  briefly  to  express  my  grief — 
my  sorrow — my  heartfelt,  unaffected  sorrow — for 
the  death  of  Daniel  Webster* 

Senators,  I  have  known  and  loved  Daniel  Web- 
ster for  thirty  years.  What  wonder,  then,  I  sor- 
row? But  now  that  I  am  on  my  feet  for  that  pur- 
pose— and  the  Senate,  who  knew  and  loved  him 
too,  are  my  listeners — how  am  I  to  express  that 
sorrow  ?  I  cannot  do  it.  It  cannot  be  done.  Oh ! 
sir,  all  words,  in  moments  such  as  these,  when  love 
or  grief  seek  utterance,  are  vain  and  frigid. 

Senators,  I  can  even  now  hardly  realize  the  event 
— that  Daniel  Webster  is  dead — that  he  does  not 
"still  live!' 

I  did  hope  that  God — who  has  watched  over  this 
republic — who  can  do  all  things — "who  hung  the 
Earth  on  nothing" — who  so  endowed  the  mind 
of  Daniel  Webster — would  still  longer  have  up- 
held its  frail  tenement,  and  kept  him  as  an  ex- 
ample to  our  own  men,  and  to  the  men  of  the  whole 
world. 

3 


34 

Indeed,  it  is  no  figure  of  speech,  when  we  say  that 
Ms  fame  was  "  world-wide." 

But,  senators,  I  have  risen  to  pronounce  no  eulogy 
on  him.  I  am  up  for  no  such  vain  purpose.  I  come 
with  no  ceremony.  I  come  to  the  portals  of  his 
grave,  stricken  with  sadness — before  the  assembled 
Senate — in  the  presence  of  friends  and  senators — 
(for  whether  they  be  of  this  side  of  the  Chamber  or 
the  other  side  of  the  Chamber,  I  hope  I  am  entitled 
to  call  every  senator  my  friend) — to  mingle  my  grief 
with  the  grief  of  those  around  me.  But  I  cherish 
no  hope  of  adding  one  gravel-stone  to  the  colossal 
column  he  has  erected  for  himself.  I  would  only 
place  a  garland  of  friendship  on  the  bier  of  one  of 
the  greatest  and  best  men  I  ever  knew. 

Senators,  you  have  known  Mr.  Webster  in  his 
public  character — as  a  statesman  of  almost  intuitive 
perceptions — as  a  lawyer  of  unsurpassed  learning 
and  ability — as  a  ripe  and  general  scholar.  But  it 
was  my  happiness  to  know  him,  also,  as  a  man  in 
the  seclusion  of  private  life;  and  in  the  performance 
of  sacred  domestic  duties,  and  of  those  of  reciprocal 
friendship,  I  say,  in  this  presence,  and  as  far  as  my 
voice  may  reach,  that  he  was  remarkable  for  all 
those  attributes  which  constitute  a  generous,  mag- 
nanimous, courageous,  hospitable,  and  high-minded 
man.  Sir,  as  far  as  my  researches  into  the  history 
of  the  world  have  gone,  they  have  failed  to  discover 
his  superior.     Not  even  on  the  records  of  ancient 


35 

Greece,  or  Home,  or  of  any  otfier  nation,  are  to  be 
found  the  traces  of  a  man  of  superior  endowments  to 
our  own  Webster. 

Mr.  President,  in  private  life  lie  was  a  man  of 
pure  and  noble  sentiments,  and  eminently  kind,  so- 
cial, and  agreeable.  He  was  generous  to  a  fault. 
Sir,  one  act  of  his,  one  speech  of  his,  made  in  this 
Chamber — placed  him  before  all  men  of  antiquity. 
He  offered  himself — yes,  you  all  remember,  in  that 
seat  tlwre,  he  rose  and  offered  himself  a  living  sacri- 
fice for  his  country.  And  Lord  Bacon  has  said,  that 
he  who  offers  himself  as  a  sacrifice  for  his  country, 
is  a  sight  for  angels  to  look  upon. 

Mr.  President,  my  feelings  on  this  occasion  will 
not  surprise  senators,  who  remember  that  these  are 
no  new  sentiments  for  me — that  when  he  was  liv- 
ing, I  had  the  temerity  to  say  that  Daniel  Webster 
was  the  greatest  among  men,  and  a  true  patriot — 
ay,  sir !  when  the  expression  of  such  opinions 
might  have  interfered  with  political  aspirations  im- 
puted to  me.  Well,  sir,  if  an  empire  had  then  been 
hanging  on  my  words,  I  would  not  have  amended 
or  altered  one  sentiment. 

Having  said  thus  much  for  the  dead,  allow  me  to 
express  a  word  of  thanks  to  the  honorable  senator 
from  Michigan,  (Mr.  Cass.)  Sir,  I  have  often  had 
occasion  to  feel  sentiments  of  regard,  and,  if  he  will 
permit  me  to  say  it,  of  affectionate  regard  for  him, 
and  sometimes  to  express  them ;  but  the  emotions 


36 

created  in  my  heart  By  his  address  this  morning  are 
not  easily  expressed.  I  thank  him — in  the  fulness 
of  my  heart  I  thank  him ;  and  may  God  spare  him 
to  our  country  many  years.  May  he  long  remain 
here,  in  our  midst,  as  he  is  at  this  day,  in  all  the 
strength  of  manhood,  and  in  all  the  glory  of  matured 
wisdom. 


■<% 


37 


HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

Wednesday,  December  15,  1852. 

The  Journal  having  been  read, 

A  message  was  received  from  the  Senate  by  the  hands 
of  Asbury  Dickins,  Esq.,  its  Secretary,  which,  upon  re- 
quest of  Mr.  Davis,  of  Massachusetts,  was  read,  as  follows  : 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  has  received  with  profound 
sensibility  the  annunciation  from  the  President  of  the  death 
of  the  late  Secretary  of  State,  Daniel  Webster,  who  was 
long  a  highly  distinguished  member  of  this  body. 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  will  manifest  its  respect  for 
the  memory  of  the  deceased,  and  its  sympathy  with  his 
bereaved  family,  by  wearing  the  usual  badge  of  mourning 
for  thirty  days. 

Resolved,  That  these  proceedings  be  communicated  to  the 
House  of  Representatives. 

MR.  DAVIS. 

Mr.  Speaker  : — I  rise  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
posing some  action  of  this  House  in  response  to  that 
which,  we  learn,  has  taken  place  in  the  Senate  in 
reference  to  the  death  of  Mr.  Webster  ;  and  I  have 
little  to  add  to  the  proposition  itself  beyond  a  brief 
expression  of  reverence  and  of  affectionate  recollec- 


m 


38 


tion.  At  this  seat  of  government,  where  thirty 
years  of  Mr.  Webster's  life  were  spent — in  this  Capi- 
tol, still  populous  with  the  echoes  of  his  voice — to 
this  House,  of  which  there  is  not  an  individual 
member  but  can  trace  something  of  his  intellectual 
wealth,  or  political  faith,  to  the  fountain  of  that 
mighty  intellect — it  would  be  useless,  and  worse,  to 
pass  in  review  the  various  acts  of  spoken  and  writ- 
ten thought  by  which  he  impressed  himself  inefiace- 
ably  upon  his  time.  Master  of  the  great  original 
ideas  of  which  our  social  institutions  are  but  the 
coarse  material  expression ;  master  of  a  style  which 
clothed  each  glorious  thought  in  a  garb  of  appro- 
priate beauty;  possessed  of  a  conquering  nature, 
that,  "like  the  west  wind,  brought  the  sunshine 
with  it,"  and  gave  us,  wherever  he  was,  the  sense  of 
security  and  power,  he  has  run  his  appointed  race, 
and  has  left  us  to  feel  that  our  day  of  life  will 
henceforth  be  more  wintry  now  that  that  light  has 
been  withdrawn. 

"  But  he  was  ours.     And  may  that  word  of  pride 
Drown,  with  its  lofty  tone,  pain's  bitter  cry  !" 

I  have  no  intention  of  undertaking  here  to  mea- 
sure his  labors  or  interpret  his  ideas;  but  I  feel 
tempted  to  say  that  his  great  field  of  action — the 
greatest  which  any  statesman  can  have — was  in 
undertaking  to  apply  general  principles  to  an  artifi- 
cial and  complicated  system;    to  reconcile  liberty 


-# 


39 

with  law;  to  work  out  the  advance  of  liberty  and 
civilization  through  and  under  the  rules  of  law  and 
government;  to  solve  that  greatest  problem  of  hu- 
man government,  how  much  of  the  ideal  may  safely 
be  let  into  the  practical. 

He  sought  these  objects,  and  he  sought  the  po- 
litical power  which  would  enable  him  to  carry  out 
these  objects,  and  he  threw  into  the  struggle  the 
great  passions  of  a  great  nature — the  quidquid  vult, 
valde  vult  of  the  elder  Brutus.  He  sought,  and  not 
unsuccessfully,  to  throw  around  the  cold  impersonal 
idea  of  a  constitution  the  halo  of  love  and  reverence 
which  in  the  Old  World  gathers  round  the  dynas- 
ties of  a  thousand  years;  for,  in  the  attachment 
thus  created,  he  thought  he  saw  the  means  of  safety 
and  permanence  for  his  country.  His  large  expe- 
rience and  broad  forecast  gave  him  notice  of  na- 
tional dangers  which  all  did  not  see,  as  the  wires  of 
the  electric  telegraph  convey  news  of  startling  im- 
port, unknown  to  the  slumbering  villages  through 
which  they  pass.  Whether  his  fears  were  well  or 
ill-founded,  the  future,  the  best  guardian  of  his  fame, 
will  show;  but,  whether  well  or  ill-founded,  matters 
nothing  now  to  him.  He  has  passed  through  the 
last  and  sternest  trial,  which  he  has  himself  in 
anticipation  described  in  words  never  to  be  for- 
gotten : 

"One  may  live  (said  he)  as  a  conqueror,  a  hero, 
or  a  magistrate,  but  he  must  die  as  a  man.     The 


40 

bed  of  death  brings  every  human  being  to  his  pure 
individuality;  to  the  intense  contemplation  of  that, 
the  deepest  and  most  solemn  of  all  relations — the 
relation  between  the  creature  and  his  Creator. 
Here  it  is  that  fame  and  renown  cannot  assist 
us;  that  all  external  things  must  fail  to  aid  us; 
that  friends,  affection,  and  human  love  and  devoted- 
ness  cannot  succor  us.  This  relation,  the  true 
foundation  of  all  duty — a  relation  perceived  and 
felt  by  conscience  and  confirmed  by  revelation — our 
illustrious  friend,  now  deceased,  always  acknow- 
ledged. He  reverenced  thes  Scripture  of  truth, 
honored  the  pure  morality  which  they  teach,  and 
clung  to  the  hopes  of  future  life  which  they  impart." 
Mr.  Webster  died  in  accordance  with  the  pre- 
vailing sentiment  of  his  life,  in  the  spirit  of  prayer 
to  God,  and  of  love  to  man.  Well  might  the  nation 
that  watched  his  dying  bed  say,  in  the  words  which 
the  greatest  English  poet  applies  to  a  legendary  hero 
who  also  had  been  the  stay  of  his  country  in  peril : 

Nothing  is  here  for  tears,  nothing  to  wail 
Or  knock  the  breast;  no  weakness,  no  contempt, 
Dispraise  or  blame  :  nothing  but  well  and  fair, 
And  what  may  comfort  us  in  a  death  so  noble. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  move  the  following  resolves : 

Resolved,  That  this  House  concurs  with  the  Senate  in  its 
expression  of  grief  for  the  death  of  Daniel  Webster,  of 
respect  for  his  memory,  and  of  estimation  of  the  services 
which  he  rendered  to  his  country. 


m 

41 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  House  will  wear  crape 
on  the  left  arm  for  the  space  of  thirty  days. 

Resolved,  That  the  Speaker  be  requested  to  make  these 
resolves  known  to  the  surviving  relatives  of  the  deceased. 

Resolved,  That  this  House  do  now  adjourn. 

MR.  APPLETON,  of  Maine.  ' 

Mr.  Speaker  : — I  do  not  know  that  I  ought  to 
add  any  thing  to  what  has  already  been  said  upon 
the  resolutions  before  us;  yet,  since  the  death  of 
Mr.  Webster  was  a  national  calamity,  it  is  fit  that 
all  classes  and  all  parties  in  the  community  should 
unite  to  testify  their  full  appreciation  of  it.  The 
people  themselves  have  admonished  us  of  this,  as 
they  have  gathered  recently  with  mournful  reve- 
rence around  his  tomb ;  and  we  should  be  unworthy 
of  them,  if,  here  in  the  Capitol,  where  he  won  so 
much  of  his  fame,  we  did  not  add  our  tribute  to  his 
memory.  It  is  a  great  memory,  sir,  and  will  go 
down  to  posterity,  as  one  of  the  country's  heir- 
looms, through  I  know  not  how  many  successive 
generations.  "We  are  not  here,  Mr.  Speaker,  to 
build  his  monument.  He  builded  that  for  himself 
before  he  died ;  and  had  he  failed  to  do  so,  none 
among  us  could  supply  the  deficiency.  "We  are 
here,  rather,  to  recognise  his  labors,  and  to  inscribe 
the  marble  with  his  name. 

That  we  have  not  all  sympathized  with  him  in 


42 

his  political  doctrines,  or  been  ready  to  sanction 
every  transaction  of  his  public  life,  need  not,  and, 
I  am  sure,  does  not,  abate  any  thing  from  our 
respect  for  his  services,  or  our  regret  for  his  loss. 
His  character  and  his  works — what  he  was  and 
what  he  did — constitute  a  legacy  which  no  sound- 
hearted  American  can  contemplate  without  emo- 
tions of  gratitude  and  pride.  There  is  enough  of 
Daniel  Webster,  sir,  to  furnish  a  common  ground 
upon  which  all  his  countrymen  can  mingle  their 
hearty  tributes  to  his  memory. 

He  was  a  man  to  be  remarked  anywhere. 
Among  a  barbarous  people  he  would  have  excited 
reverence  by  his  very  look  and  mien.  No  one 
could  stand  before  him  without  knowing  that  he 
stood  in  a  majestic  presence,  and  admiring  those 
lineaments  of  greatness  with  which  his  Creator  had 
enstamped,  in  a  manner  not  to  be  mistaken,  his 
outward  form.  If  there  eVer  was  such  an  instance 
on  earth,  his  was  the  appearance  described  by  the 
great  dramatist: — 

The  combination  and  the  form  indeed, 
Where  every  god  did  seem  to  set  his  seal, 
To  give  the  world  assurance  of  a  man. 

No  one  could  listen  to  him  in  his  happier  mo- 
ments,  without    feeling   his    spirit    stirred   within 


43 

him  by  those  deep,  cathedral  tones  which  were 
the  fit  vehicles  of  his  grave  and  earnest  thoughts. 

No  one  can  read  his  writings  without  being 
struck  by  the  wonderful  manner  in  which  they 
unite  a  severe  simplicity  of  style  with  great  warmth 
of  fancy,  and  great  affluence  of  diction. 

We,  Mr.  Speaker,  remember  his  look  and  his 
spoken  words ;  but  by  those  who  are  to  come  after 
us  he  will  be  chiefly  known  through  that  written 
eloquence  which  is  gathered  in  our  public  records, 
and  enshrined  among  the  pages  of  his  published 
works.  By  these,  at  least,  he  still  lives,  and  by 
these,  in  my  judgment,  he  will  continue  to  live, 
after  these  pillars  shall  have  fallen,  and  this  Capitol 
shall  have  crumbled  into  ruin.  Demosthenes  has 
survived  the  Parthenon,  and  Tully  still  pleads  be- 
fore the  world  the  cause  of  Eoman  culture  and 
Koman  oratory ;  but  there  is  nothing,  it  seems  to 
me,  either  in  Tully  or  in  Demosthenes,  which,  for 
conception,  or  language,  or  elevation  of  sentiment, 
can  exceed  some  passages  in  the  writings  which 
remain  of  Daniel  Webster.  His  fame,  indeed,  is 
secure,  for  it  is  guarded  by  his  own  works ;  and  as 
he  himself  said  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  "  he  has  lived  long 
enough — he  has  done  enough,  and  he  has  done 
it  so  well,  so  successfully,  so  honorably,  as  to 
connect  himself  for  all  time  with  the  records  of 
his  country." 


44 

In  no  respect,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  this  an  occasion  of 
lamentation  for  1dm.  Death  was  not  meant  to  be 
regarded  as  an  evil,  or  else  it  would  not  come  alike 
to  all;  and  about  Mr.  Webster's  death  there  were 
many  circumstances  of  felicity  and  good  fortune. 
He  died  in  the  maturity  of  his  intellect ;  after  long 
public  service,  and  after  having  achieved  a  great 
name  for  himself,  and  a  great  memory  for  his 
country.  He  died  at  home;  his  last  wants  sup- 
plied by  the  hands  of  affection;  his  last  hours 
cheered  by  the  consolations  of  friendship ;  amidst 
those  peaceful  scenes  which  he  had  himself  assisted 
to  make  beautiful,  and  within  hearing  of  that  ocean- 
anthem  to  which  he  always  listened  with  emotions 
of  gratitude  and  joy.  He  died,  too,  conscious  of  the 
wonderful  growth  and  prosperity  and  glory  of  his 
native  land.  His  eloquent  prayer  had  been  an- 
swered— the  prayer  which  he  breathed  forth  to 
Providence  at  the  greatest  era  of  his  life,  when  he 
stood  side  by  side  with  Andrew  Jackson,  and  they 
both  contended  for  what  was,  in  their  belief,  the 
cause  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union. 

I  pause,  Mr.  Speaker,  at  the  combination  of  those 
two  names.  Andrew  Jackson  and  Daniel  Webster  ! 
Daniel  Webster  and  Andrew  Jackson!  With  the 
clear  intellect  and  glorious  oratory  of  the  one, 
added  to  the  intuitive  sagacity  and  fate-like  will  of 
the  other,  I  will  not  ask  what  ivrong  is  there  which 


45 

they  could  not  successfully  crush,  but  what  right 
is  there,  rather,  which  could  withstand  their  united 
power. 

"  When  my  eyes,"  he  said  on  that  great  occasion, 
"  are  turned  to  behold  for  the  last  time  the  sun  in 
heaven,  may  I  not  see  him  shining  on  the  broken 
and  dishonoured  fragments  of  a  once  glorious  Union ; 
on  States  dissevered,  discordant,  belligerent ;  on  a 
land  rent  with  civil  feuds,  or  drenched,  it  may  be, 
with  fraternal  blood.  Let  their  last  feeble  and  lin- 
gering glance  rather  behold  the  gorgeous  ensign  of 
the  republic,  now  known  and  honored  throughout 
the  earth,  still  full  high  advanced,  its  arms  and 
trophies  streaming  in  their  original  lustre,  not  a 
stripe  erased  or  polluted,  nor  a  single  star  obscured, 
bearing  for  its  motto  no  such  miserable  interrogatory 
as  '  What  is  all  this  worth  ?' — nor  those  other  words 
of  delusion  and  folly,  c  Liberty  first  and  union  after- 
ward;' but  everywhere,  spread  all  over  in  charac- 
ters of  living  light,  blazing  on  all  its  ample  folds,  as 
they  float  over  the  sea  and  over  the  land,  and  in 
every  wind  under  the  whole  heavens,  that  other 
sentiment,  dear  to  every  American  heart,  '  Liberty 
and  union,  now  and  for  ever,  one  and  inseparable.' " 
Sir,  Mr.  Webster  outlived  the  crisis  of  1830,  and 
saw  his  country  emerge  in  safety,  also,  from  that 
later  tempest  of  sectional  disturbance,  whose  waters 
are  even  yet  heaving  with  the  swell  of  subdued,  but 


46 

not  exhausted  passion.  He  left  this  nation  great, 
prosperous,  and  happy ;  and  more  than  that,  he  left 
the  Constitution  and  the  Union  in  vigorous  exist- 
ence, under  whose  genial  influences  all  that  glory, 
and  prosperity,  and  happiness,  he  knew,  had  been 
achieved.  To  preserve  them,  he  had  risked  what 
few  men  have  to  risk — his  reputation,  his  good  name, 
his  cherished  friendships ;  and  if  there  be  any  who 
doubt  the  wisdom  of  his  7th  of  March  speech,  let 
them  consider  the  value  of  these  treasures,  and  they 
will  at  least  give  him  credit  for  patriotism  and  sin- 
cerity. But  I  am  unwilling,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  dwell 
upon  this  portion  of  his  career.  The  fires  of  that 
crisis  have  subsided  ;  but  their  ashes  are  yet  warm 
with  recent  strife.  What  Mr.  Webster  did,  and  the 
other  great  men  with  whom  he  labored,  to  extin- 
guish those  fires,  has  gone  into  the  keeping  of  his- 
tory, and  they  have  found  their  best  reward  in  the 
continued  safety  of  the  republic. 

Our  anxiety  need  not  be  for  them.  When  the 
mariner  is  out  upon  the  ocean,  and  sees,  one  by  one, 
the  lights  of  heaven  go  out  before  the  rising  storm, 
he  does  not  ask  what  has  become  of  those  lights,  or 
whether  they  shall  renew  their  lustre ;  but  his  in- 
quiry is,  what  is  to  become  of  me,  and  how  am  I  to 
guide  my  bark  in  safety,  after  these  natural  pilots 
of  the  sky  have  disappeared.  Yet  even  then,  by 
consulting  those  calculation  and  directions,  which 


47 

wise  and  skilful  men  had  prepared,  when  the  light 
did  shine,  and  there  was  no  tempest  raging  upon  the 
sea, -he  is  enabled,  it  may  be,  to  grope  his  way  in 
safety  to  his  desired  port.  And  this,  sir,  is  our  con- 
solation upon  occasions  like  the  present  one.  Jack- 
son, and  Calhoun,  and  Clay,  and  Wright,  and  Polk, 
and  Woodbury,  and  Webster,  are  indeed  no  more ; 
and  if  all  that  they  thought,  and  said,  and  did — 
their  wise  conceptions,  and  their  heroic  deeds,  and 
their  bright  examples — were  buried  with  them,  how 
terribly  deepened  would  now  be  our  sense  of  the 
nation's  loss,  and  how  much  less  hopeful  the  pros- 
pects of  republican  liberty.  But  it  is  not  so. 
"A  superior  and  commanding  human  intellect," 
(Mr.  Webster  has  himself  told  us,)  "  a  truly  great 
man,  when  Heaven  vouchsafes  so  rare  a  gift,  is  not 
a  temporary  flame,  burning  brightly  for  a  while,  and 
then  giving  place  to  returning  darkness.  It  is  rather 
a  spark  of  fervent  heat,  as  well  as  radiant  light, 
with  power  to  enkindle  the  common  mass  of  human 
mind ;  so  that  when  it  glimmers  in  its  own  decay, 
and  finally  goes  out  in  death,  no  night  follows,  but 
it  leaves  the  world  all  light,  all  on  fire,  from  the 
potent  contact  of  its  own  spirit."  No,  sir,  our  great 
men  do  not  wholly  die.  All  that  they  achieved 
worthy  of  remembrance  survives  them.  They  live 
in  their  recorded  actions ;  they  live  in  their  bright 
examples;   they  live  in  the  respect  and  gratitude 


48 

of  mankind;  and  they  live  in  that  peculiar  in- 
fluence, by  which  one  single  commanding  thought, 
as  it  runs  along  the  electric  chain  of  human 
affairs,  sets  in  motion  still  other  thoughts  and  in- 
fluences, in  endless  progression;  and  thus  makes 
its  author  an  active  and  powerful  agent  in  the 
events  of  life,  long  after  his  mortal  portion  shall 
have  crumbled  in  the  tomb. 

Let  us  thank  God  for  this  immortality  of  worth, 
and  rejoice  in  every  example  which  is  given  to  us 
of  what  our  nature  is  capable  of  accomplishing. 
Let  it  teach  us  not  despair,  but  courage,  and  lead 
us  to  follow  in  its  light,  at  however  great  a  dis- 
tance, and  with  however  unequal  steps.  This  is 
the  lesson  of  wisdom,  as  well  as  of  poetry. 

Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 

We  can  make  our  lives  sublime ; 
And  departing,  leave  behind  us 

Footprints  on  the  sands  of  Time. 

Footprints,  that  perhaps  another, 

Sailing  o'er  life's  solemn  main, 
A  forlorn  and  shipwreck' d  brother, 

Seeing,  may  take  heart  again, 

When  God  shall  send  his  Angel  to  us,  Mr. 
Speaker,  bearing  the  scroll  of  death,  may  we  be 
able    to    bow   our   heads   to    his   mission   with   as 


49 

much  of  gentleness  and  resignation  as  marked  the 
last  hours  of  Daniel  Webster. 


MR.  PRESTON. 

Mr.  Speaker  : — I  have  been  requested,  by  some 
of  the  gentlemen  who  compose  the  delegation  from 
my  State,  to  make  some  remarks  upon  the  subject 
of  the  message  and  resolutions  received  from  the 
Senate,  which  have  been  laid  upon  your  table  this 
morning,  in  relation  to  the  death  of  Mr.  Webster. 
It  was,  in  their  opinion,  peculiarly  appropriate  that 
Kentucky — a  State  so  long  associated  with  Massa- 
chusetts in  political  sympathy,  as  well  as  in  recipro- 
cal admiration  entertained  for  two  of  the  most  emi- 
nent men  of  their  day — should  come  forward  and 
add  her  testimonial  of  the  esteem  in  which  she  held 
his  life  and  great  public  services,  and  the  regret  she 
experienced  at  the  calamity  which  has  befallen  the 
country.  The  mind  naturally  goes  back,  in  looking 
over  the  great  career  of  Daniel  Webster,  to  the 
period  of  his  birth — seventy  years  ago.  In  the 
northern  part  of  the  State  of  New  Hampshire,  be- 
neath the  roof  of  his  pioneer  father,  the  future 
statesman  first  drew  the  breath  of  life,  and  imbibed, 
amid  its  picturesque  scenery  and  wild  mountains, 
that  freedom  of  thought,  that  dignity,  and  that  in- 
tellectual health  which  left  so  indelible  a  mark  upon 
his  oratory  and  public  career  in  after-life.     No  man 


50 

has  earned  a  greater  reputation,  in  the  present  time, 
in  forensic  endeavor,  than  Mr.  Webster,  nor  any 
whose  reputation  could  challenge  comparison,  unless 
it  be  one  who  was  also  born  in  a  similar  obscure 
station  of  life,  amid  the  marshes  of  Hanover,  and 
whose  future  led  him  to  cross  the  summit  of  the 
Appalachian  range  with  the  great  tide  of  population 
which  poured  from  Virginia  upon  the  fertile  plains 
of  Kentucky.  Their  destiny  has  been  useful,  great, 
and  brilliant.  From  that  period  to  this,  these  cele- 
brated contemporaries  have  been  conspicuous  in  the 
career  of  public  utility  to  which  they  devoted  their 
lives,  and  by  their  intellectual  superiority  and  dig- 
nified statesmanship  have  commanded  not  only  the 
respect  of  their  several  States,  but  of  the  nation  and 
of  mankind.  For  forty  years  they  swayed  the 
councils  of  their  country,  and  the  same  year  sees 
them  consigned  to  the  grave.  The  statesman  of 
Ashland  died  in  this  city,  before  the  foliage  of  sum- 
mer was  sere,  and  was  sent,  with  the  honors  of  his 
country,  back  to  the  resting-place  which  he  now  oc- 
cupies in  the  home  of  his  early  adoption.  The 
winds  of  autumn  have  swept  the  stern  New  England 
shores — the  shores  of  Plymouth,  where  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  landed — and  caught  up  the  expiring  breath 
of  Daniel  Webster  as  he  terminated  his  life  of 
honorable  service.  The  dirge  that  the  night  winds 
now  utter  through  the  primeval  forests  of  Ashland 
lament  for  one;  the  surges  of  the  wintry  ocean,  as 


51 

they  beat  upon  the  shores  of  Marshfield,  are  a  fit- 
ting requiem  to  the  other. 

There  are  two  points  of  particular  prominence  in 
the  life  of  Webster  to  which  I  will  allude.  All 
remember  the  celebrated  struggle  of  1830.  The 
greatest  minds  of  the  country,  seeing  the  constitu- 
tional questions  involved  from  different  points  of 
view,  were  embroiled  in  controversy.  The  darkest 
apprehensions  were  entertained.  A  gallant  and  gift- 
ed senator  from  South  Carolina,  (General  Hayne,) 
with  a  genius  and  fire  characteristic  of  the  land  of 
his  birth,  had  expressed  the  views  of  his  party  with 
great  ability,  and,  as  it  was  thought,  with  irresist- 
ible eloquence.  The  eyes  of  the  country  were  di- 
rected to  Webster  as  the  champion  of  the  Constitu- 
tion and  the  Union.  Crowds  of  beautiful  women 
and  anxious  men  on  that  day  thronged  the  other 
wing  of  this  Capitol.  What  patriotic  heart  in  the 
nation  has  yet  forgotten  that  noble  and  memorable 
reply?  A  deep  and  enthusiastic  sentiment  of  admi- 
ration and  respect  thrilled  through  the  heart  of  the 
people,  and  even  yet  the  triumph  of  that  son  of  New 
England  is  consecrated  in  the  memory  of  his  coun- 
trymen. Subsequently,  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
Union,  President  Jackson,  announced  opinions  of  a 
similar  character  in  his  celebrated  Proclamation,  and 
men  of  all  parties  felt  that  a  new  rampart  had  been 
erected  for  the  defence  of  the  Constitution. 

At  a  period  more  recent,  within  the  remembrance 


52 

of  all,  Daniel  "Webster  again  appeared  in  another 
critical  emergency  that  imperilled  the  safety  of  the 
republic.  It  was  the  7th  of  March,  1850.  Ex- 
cited by  the  territorial  question,  the  spirit  of  fana- 
ticism broke  forth  with  fearful  violence  from  the 
North.  But  it  did  not  shake  his  undaunted  soul. 
He  gazed  with  majestic  serenity  at  the  storm,  and 
sublime  in  his  self-reliance,  as  Virgil  describes  Me- 
zentius  surrounded  by  his  enemies, 

He,  like  a  solid  rock  by  seas  enclosed, 
To  raging  winds  and  roaring  waves  exposed, 
From  his  proud  summit  looking  down,  disdains 
Their  empty  menace,  and  unmoved  remains. 

A  great  portion  of  the  fame  of  Daniel  Webster 
rests  upon  the  events  of  that  day,  and  his  patriotism 
having  endured  the  tempest,  his  reputation  shone 
with  fresh  lustre  after  it  had  passed.  Clay  and 
Webster  on  that  day  stood  linked  hand-in-hand, 
and  averted  the  perils  that  menaced  their  common 
country.  In  the  last  great  act  of  their  lives  in  the 
Senate,  they  drew  closer  the  bonds  of  union  between 
the  North  and  South,  like  those  lofty  Cordilleras 
that,  stretching  along  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  bind 
in  indissoluble  bonds  Northern  and  Southern  Ame- 
rica, and  alike  beat  back  from  their  rocky  sides  the 
fury  of  either  ocean.  These,  Mr.  Speaker,  and  gen- 
tlemen of  the  House,  are  the  memories  that  make 


53 

us  in  our  Western  homes  revere  the  names  of  Clay 
and  Webster. 

The  gentleman  from  Massachusetts,  (Mr.  Davis,) 
in  his  eloquent  tribute  to  the  genius  and  fame  of 
Daniel  Webster,  has  chosen  to  apply  to  him  the 
remark  by  which  Cicero  characterizes  Brutus — 
"  Quidquid  vult,  valde  vult"  If  he  will  pardon  me, 
I  think  the  description  applied  by  the  great  orator 
whom  he  has  quoted  to  Gracchus  is  more  striking : 
"  Eloquentia  quidem  nescio  an  Jtahuisset  parent :  gran- 
dis  est  verbis,  sapiens  sententiis,  genere  toto  gravis" 
If,  however,  a  resemblance  prevailed  in  this  respect 
between  Caius  Gracchus  and  Webster,  it  did  not  in 
others.  Gracchus,  as  we  are  told,  was  the  first  Ko- 
man  orator  who  turned  his  back  to  the  capitol  and 
his  face  to  the  people ;  the  popular  orators  of  Eome, 
anterior  to  that  time,  having  always  turned  their 
faces  to  the  Senate  and  their  backs  to  the  Forum. 
Webster  never  sought  to  subvert  the  judgment  of 
the  people  by  inflaming  their  passions.  His  sphere 
was  among  men  of  intellect.  His  power  was  in 
convincing  the  minds  of  the  cultivated  and  intel- 
lectual, rather  than  by  fervid  harangues  to  sway  the 
ignorant  or  excite  the  multitude.  Clay — bold,  bril- 
liant, and  dashing,  rushing  at  results  with  that  intu- 
ition of  common  sense  that  outstrips  all  the  pro- 
cesses of  logic — always  commanded  the  heart  and 
directed  the  action  of  his  party.  Webster  seemed 
deficient  in  some  of  these  great  qualities,  but  sur- 


54 

passed  him  in  others.  He  appeared  his  natural 
auxiliary.  Clay,  the  most  brilliant  parliamentary 
leader,  and  probably  unequalled,  save  by  the  Earl  of 
Chatham,  whom  he  resembled,  swept  with  the  velo- 
city of  a  charge  of  cavalry  on  the  ranks  of  his  op- 
ponents, and  often  won  the  victory  before  others 
were  prepared  for  the  encounter.  Webster,  with  his 
array  of  facts,  his  power  of  statement,  and  logical 
deductions,  moved  forward  like  the  disciplined  and 
serried  infantry,  with  the  measured  tread  of  delibe- 
rate resolution  and  the  stately  air  of  irresistible 
power. 

Daniel  Webster  is  dead.  He  died  without  ever 
having  been  elevated  to  the  Presidency  of  the  na- 
tion. Camillus,  the  second  founder  of  Eome,  never 
enjoyed  the  Consulate;  but  he  was  not  less  illus- 
trious because  he  was  not  rewarded  by  the  fasces 
and  the  consular  purple.  Before  the  lustre  of  Web- 
ster's renown,  a  merely  presidential  reputation  must 
grow  pale.  He  has  not  only  left  a  reputation  of 
unsurpassed  lustre  in  the  Senate,  but  he  will  also 
pass  down  to  posterity  as  the  ablest  and  most  pro- 
found jurist  of  his  day.  As  an  orator,  he  had  not, 
as  has  been  correctly  observed  by  a  senator  from 
New  York,  the  vehemence  of  Demosthenes,  nor  the 
splendor  of  Cicero ;  but  still  Daniel  Webster  was 
an  orator — an  orator  marked  by  the  characteristics 
of  the  Teutonic  race — bold,  massive,  and  replete 
with   manly   force   and   vigor.      His   writings   are 


i 


55 

marked  by  a  deep  philosophy  which  will  cause 
them  to  be  read  when  the  issues  that  evoked  them 
have  passed  away,  and  the  splendor  of  an  imagina- 
tion, almost  as  rich  as  that  of  Burke,  will  invest 
them  with  attractions  alike  for  the  political  scholar 
and  the  man  of  letters. 

We  should  not  deplore  the  death  of  Webster.  It 
is  true  the  star  has  shot  from  the  sphere  it  illumi- 
nated, and  is  lost  in  the  gloom  of  death ;  but  he 
sank«£ull  of  years  and  honors,  after  he  had  reached 
the  verge  of  human  life,  and  before  his  majestic  in- 
tellect was  dimmed  or  his  body  bowed  down  by 
old  age.  He  did  not  sink  into  his  grave,  like  Marl- 
borough, amid  the  mists  of  dotage ;  but  he  went 
while  his  intellect  was  unclouded,  and  the  literary 
remembrances  of  his  youth  came  thronging  to  the 
dying  bed  of  their  votary.  Napoleon,  when  he  was 
expiring  at  St.  Helena,  muttered  disconnected  words 
of  command  and  battle,  that  showed  his  turbulent 
mind  still  struggled  in  imaginary  conflicts ;  but  gen- 
tler spirits  brought  to  the  death-bed  of  the  states- 
man of  Marshfield  more  consoling  memories  as  he 
murmured, 

The  curfew  tolls  the  knell  of  parting  day; 

and  all  the  tender  and  mournful  beauties  of  that 
inimitable  elegy  clustered  around  his  soul. 

But,  sir,  I  will  not  venture  to  say  more  on  this 
theme.     I  have  said  thus  much  in  the  name  of  my 


1 


56 

native  State,  to  testify  her  veneration  for  worth, 
patriotism,  and  departed  greatness,  and  to  add  with 
proper  reverence  a  handful  of  earth  to  the  mound 
a  nation  raises  to  the  memory  of  the  great  secre- 
tary, and  to  say,  Peace  be  to  the  manes  of  Webster. 

MR.  SEYMOUR,  of  New  York,  said:— 

Mr.  Speaker  : — I  rise  in  support  of  the  resolu- 
tions offered  by  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts, 
and  in  that  connection  propose  to  submit  a*few 
remarks. 

Sir,  our  great  men  are  the  common  property  of 
the  country.  In  the  days  of  our  prosperity,  we 
boast  of  their  genius  and  enterprise  as  they  advance 
the  general  weal.  In  the  hour  of  a  nation's  peril, 
the  shadow  of  their  great  name  is  the  gathering 
point,  whither  we  all  turn  for  guidance  and  defence  ; 
and  whether  their  laurels  have  been  gathered  on  the 
battle-field,  in  sustaining  our  rights  against  hostile 
nations — in  the  halls  of  legislation,  devising  and 
enacting  those  wise  and  beneficent  laws  which,  by 
developing  the  resources,  instructing  the  mind,  and 
directing  the  energies  of  the  nation,  may  be  traced 
on  the  frame- work  of  society  long  after  their  authors 
have  ceased  to  exist — or  in  the  temple  of  justice  or 
the  sacred  desk,  regulating  the  jarring  elements  of 
civil  life,  and  making  men  happier  and  better — 
they  are  all  parts  of  one  grand  exhibition,  showing, 


57 

through  all  coming  time,  what  the  men  of  the  pre- 
sent age  and  of  our  nation  have  done  for  the  eleva- 
tion and  advancement  of  our  race.  To  chronicle 
these  results  of  human  effort,  and  to  transmit  them 
to  future  ages,  is  the  province  of  history.  In  her 
temple,  the  great  and  the  good  are  embalmed. 
There  they  may  be  seen  and  read  by  all  those  who, 
in  future  generations,  shall  emulate  their  great 
deeds.  Time,  whose  constant  flow  is  continually 
obliterating  and  changing  the  physical  and  social 
relations  of  all  things,  cannot  efface  the  landmarks 
which  they  have  raised  along  the  pathway  of  life. 
The  processes  by  which  they  attained  the  grand  re- 
sult, and  the  associations  by  which  they  at  the  time 
were  surrounded,  are  unknown  or  forgotten,  while 
we  contemplate  the  monuments  which  their  genius 
and  heroism  have  raised. 

Who  that  reads  the  story  of  the  battle  of  Mara- 
thon, by  which  the  liberties  of  Athens  were  rescued 
from  Persian  despotism,  stops  to  inquire  to  what 
party  in  that  republic  Miltiades  belonged?  Who 
that  listens  to  the  thunders  of  Demosthenes,  as  he 
moves  all  Greece  to  resist  the  common  enemy, 
attempts  to  trace  his  political  associations?  So  it 
will  be  in  the  future  of  this  republic.  The  battle 
of  New  Orleans  will  disclose  Jackson,  the  hero  and 
the  patriot,  saving  his  country  from  her  enemies. 
The  debates  of  the  Senate  Chamber  will  exhibit 


58 

Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Webster,  illustrating  and  de- 
fending the  great  principles  of  our  government  by 
their  lofty  patriotism  and  eloquence.  On  neither 
picture  will  be  observed  whatever  we  of  the  present 
time  may  judge  to  have  savored  of  the  mere  politi- 
cian and  the  partisan.  We,  from  our  near  proxi- 
mity, may  see,  or  think  we  see,  the  ill-shapen  rocks 
and  the  unseemly  caverns  which  disfigure  the  sides 
of  these  mighty  Alpine  peaks.  Future  ages  will 
only  descry  their  ever-gilded  summits. 

Who,  then,  shall  lightly  say  that  Fame 

Is  but  an  empty  name  ? 

When,  but  for  these  our  mighty  dead, 

All  ages  past  a  blank  would  be, 
Sunk  in  Oblivion's  murky  bed — 

A  desert  bare — a  shipless  sea. 
They  are  the  distant  objects  seen, 
The  lofty  marks  of  what  hath  been ; 

Where  memory  of  the  mighty  dead, 
To  earth -worn  pilgrims'  wistful  eye 

The  brightest  rays  of  cheering  shed 
That  point  to  immortality. 

Sir,  I  shall  not  attempt  here  to  even  briefly  re- 
view the  public  life  or  delineate  the  true  character 
of  Daniel  Webster.  That  public  life,  extending 
through  more  than  forty  years  of  the  growth  and 
progress  of  our  country,  will  doubtless  be  sketched 
by  those  of  his  compeers  who  have  shared  with  him 


59 

in  his  public  service.  That  character,  too,  will  best 
be  drawn  by  those  intimate  friends  who  knew  him 
best,  and  who  enjoyed  the  most  favourable  opportu- 
nities for  observing  the  operations  of  his  giant 
mind. 

In  looking  at  what  he  has  achieved,  not  only  in 
the  fields  of  legislation,  but  in  those  of  literature 
and  jurisprudence,  I  may  say  he  has  left  a  monu- 
ment of  his  industry  and  genius  of  which  his 
countrymen  may  well  be  proud.  His  speeches  in 
the  Senate  and  before  the  assemblies  of  the  people, 
and  his  arguments  before  our  highest  courts,  taken 
together,  form  the  most  valuable  contribution  to 
American  literature,  language,  and  oratory,  which 
it  has  been  the  good  fortune  of  any  individual  to 
have  yet  made.  Were  I  to  attempt  it,  I  should  be 
unable  to  determine  on  which  of  the  varied  scenes 
of  his  labors  his  genius  and  talents  stood  pre- 
eminent. 

His  argument  in  the  Dartmouth  College  case  has 
ever  been  regarded  as  a  model  of  forensic  debate, 
exhibiting  the  rare  combination  of  the  dry  logic  of 
the  law  with  the  tender,  the  beautiful,  and  the 
sublime.  His  address  before  the  Historical  Society 
of  New  York  not  only  exhibited  a  thorough  ac- 
quaintance with  ancient  and  modern  literature,  but 
was  itself  a  gem  whose  brilliancy  will  never  cease 
to  attract  even  by  the  side  of  the  great  lights  of  the 


60 

literary  world.  The  speech  in  the  Senate  in  reply  to 
Hayne,  by  its  powerful  argumentation,  its  sublimity, 
and  patriotic  fervor,  placed  him  at  once,  by  the 
common  consent  of  mankind,  in  the  front  rank  of 
orators. 

But  I  cannot  on  this  occasion  review  a  life  re- 
plete with  incidents  at  once  evincing  the  workings 
of  a  great  mind,  and  marking  important  events  in 
the  history  of  the  country.  I  can  here  only  speak 
of  his  labors  collectively.  They  were  the  result 
of  great  effort — grand  in  their  conception,  effec- 
tive in  their  execution,  and  permanent  in  their 
influences. 

As  a  son  of  his  native  New  England,  I  am  proud 
to  refer  back  to  the  plain  and  unostentatious  man- 
ners, the  rigid  discipline,  and  the  early  and 
thorough  mental  training,  to  be  found  among  the 
yeomanry  of  that  part  of  our  country,  as  con- 
tributing primarily  to  the  eminent  success  of  Mr. 
Webster  in  the  business  of  his  life.  Born,  reared, 
and  educated  among  the  granite  hills  of  New 
Hampshire,  although  his  attachments  to  the  place 
of  his  birth  were  strong  to  the  last,  yet,  upon  the 
broad  theatre  upon  which  he  was  called  to  act  his 
part  as  a  public  man,  his  sympathies  and  his  pa- 
triotism were  bounded  only  by  the  confines  of  the 
whole  republic. 

Although,  in  common  with  many  of  us,  I  differed 


61 

in  opinion  from  the  late  Secretary  of  State  upon 
grave  political  questions,  yet,  with  the  great  mass 
of  our  fellow-citizens,  I  acknowledge  his  patriotism, 
and  the  force  and  ability  with  which  he  sustained 
his  own  opinions.  However  we  may  view  those 
opinions,  one  thing  will  be  conceded  by  all:  his 
feelings  were  thoroughly  American,  and  his  aim 
the  good  of  his  country.  In  his  whole  public  life, 
and  by  his  greatest  efforts  as  an  orator,  he  has  left 
deeply  impressed  on  the  American  mind  one  great 
truth,  never  to  be  forgotten — the  preservation  of 
American  liberty  depends  upon  the  support  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union  of  the  States.  To  have 
thus  linked  his  name  indissolubly  with  the  per- 
petuity of  our  institutions  is  enough  of  glory  for 
any  citizen  of  the  republic. 

MR.  CHANDLER  said:— 

Mr.  Speaker  : — The  selection  of  the  present 
time  to  make  special  and  official  reference  to  the 
death  of  Mr.  Webster  may  be  regarded  as  fortunate 
and  judicious.  An  earlier  moment  would  have  ex- 
posed our  eulogies  to  those  exaggerations  which, 
while  they  do  justice  in  some  measure  to  the  feelings 
whence  they  spring,  are  no  proofs  of  sound  judg- 
ment in  the  utterer,  nor  sources  of  honor  to  their 
lamented  object.  The  great  departed  owe  little  to 
the  record  of  their  worth,  which  is  made  in  the 


" 


62 

midst  of  sudden  emotions,  when  the  freshness  of 
personal  intercourse  mingles  with  recollections  of 
public  virtues,  and  the  object,  observed  through  the 
tears  of  recent  sorrow,  bears  with  it  the  prismatic 
hues  which  distort  its  fair  proportions,  and  hide 
that  simplicity  which  is  the  characteristic  of  true 
greatness.  And  equally  just  is  it  to  the  dead 
whom  we  would  honor,  and  to  our  feelings  which 
would  promote  that  honor,  that  we  have  not  post- 
poned the  season  to  a  period  when  time  would  so 
have  mitigated  our  just  regret  as  to  direct  our 
eulogies  only  to  those  lofty  points  of  Mr.  "Webster's 
character  which  strike  but  from  afar;  which  owe 
their  distinction  less  to  their  affinities  with  public 
sympathy  than  to  their  elevation  above  ordinary 
ascent,  and  ordinary  computation. 

That  distance,  too,  in  a  government  like  ours,  is 
dangerous  to  a  just  homage  to  the  distinguished 
dead,  however  willing  may  be  the  survivor;  for 
smaller  objects  intervene,  and  by  proximity  hide 
the  proportions  which  we  survey  from  afar,  and 
diminish  that  just  appreciation  which  is  necessary 
to  the  honorable  praise  that  is  to  perpetuate  public 
fame. 

Mr.  Webster  was  a  distinguished  statesman, 
tried,  sir,  in  nearly  all  the  various  positions  which 
in  our  government  the  civilian  is  called  on  to  fill, 
and  in  all  these  places  the  powers  of  a  gifted  mind, 


63 

strengthened  and  improved  by  a  practical  educa- 
tion, were  the  great  means  by  which  he  achieved 
success,  and  patriotism  the  motive  of  their  devotion. 
With  all  Mr.  Webster's  professional  greatness,  with 
all  his  unrivalled  powers  in  the  Senate,  with  his 
great  distinction  as  a  diplomatist,  he  was  fond  of 
credit  as  a  scholar;  and  his  attainments,  if  not  of 
the  kind  which  gives  eminence  to  merely  literary 
men,  were  such  as  gave  richness  and  terseness  to 
his  own  composition,  and  vigor  and  attraction  to  his 
conversation.  His  mind  was  moulded  to  the  strong 
conception  of  the  epic  poet,  rather  than  the  gentle 
phrase  of  the  didactic;  and  his  preference  for  na- 
tural scenery  seemed  to  partake  of  his  literary 
taste — it  was  for  the  strong,  the  elevated,  the  grand. 
His  childhood  and  youth  joyed  in  the  rough  sides  of 
the  mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  and  his  age 
found  a  delightful  repose  on  the  wild  shores  of 
Massachusetts  bay.  He  was  a  lover  of  Nature,  not 
in  her  holiday  suit  of  field  and  flower,  but  in  those 
wild  exhibitions  of  broken  coast  and  isolated  hills, 
that  seem  to  stir  the  mind  into  activity,  and  pro- 
voke it  into  emulation  of  the  grandeur  with  which 
it  is  surrounded.  Yet,  sir,  Mr.  Webster  had  with 
him  much  of  the  gentleness  which  gives  beauty  to 
social  life,  and  dignity  and  attraction  to  the  do- 
mestic scene,  just  as  the  rugged  coast  is  often 
as  placid  as  the  gentlest  lake,  and  the  summit  of 


64 

the  roughest  hill  is  frequently  bathed  in  the  softest 
sunlight,  and  clad  in  flowers  of  the  most  delicate 
hues.  Mr.  Webster's  person  was  strongly  indica- 
tive of  the  character  of  his  mind;  not  formed  for 
the  lighter  graces,  but  graceful  in  the  noblest  uses 
of  manhood;  remarkable  in  the  stateliness  of  its 
movements,*  and  dignified  in  the  magnificence  of 
its  repose.  Mr.  Webster  could  scarcely  pass  un- 
noticed, even  where  unknown.  There  was  that  in 
his  mien  which  attracted  attention,  and  awakened 
interest;  and  his  head  (whether  his  countenance 
was  lighted  by  a  smile,  such  as  only  he  could  give, 
or  fixed  by  contemplation,  such  as  only  he  could 
indulge)  seemed  an 

arch'd  and  ponderous  roof, 
By  its  own  weight  made  steadfast  and  immovable, 
Looking  tranquillity ! 

With  all  Mr.  Webster's  lofty  gifts  and  attain- 
ments, he  was  ambitious.  Toiling  upward  from 
the  base  of  the  political  ladder,  it  is  not  to  be  de- 
nied that  he  desired  to  set  his  foot  upon  the  upmost 
round.  This  could  not  have  been  a  thirst  for 
power :  nothing  of  a  desire  for  the  exercise  of  abso- 
lute authority  could  have  been  in  that  aspiration  ; 
for  the  only  absolute  power  left  (if  any  be  left)  by 
the  Constitution  in  the  Executive  of  this  nation  is 
"mercy."     In  Mr.  Webster  it  was  the  distinction 


65 

which  the  place  conferred,  and  the  sphere  of  use- 
fulness it  presented.  He  regarded  it  as  the  crown- 
ing glory  of  his  public  life — a  glory  earned  by  his 
devotion  of  unparalleled  talents  and  unsurpassed 
statesmanship.  This  ambition  in  Mr.  Webster  was 
modesty.  He  could  not  see,  as  others  saw  and 
felt,  that  no  political  elevation  was  necessary  to 
the  completion  of  his  fame  or  the  distinction  of  his 
statesmanship.  It  was  not  for  him  to  understand 
that  the  last  round  of  political  preferment,  honor- 
able as  it  is,  and  made  more  honorable  by  the 
lustre  which  purity  of  motive,  great  talents,  and 
devoted  patriotism  are  now  shedding  down  upon 
it — he  could  not  understand  that  preferment,  honor- 
able as  it  is,  was  unnecessary  to  him ;  that  it  could 
add  nothing  to  his  political  stature,  nor  enlarge  the 
horizon  of  his  comprehensive  views.  It  is  the 
characteristic  of  men  of  true  greatness,  of  exalted 
talents,  to  comprehend  the  nature  and  power  of 
the  gifts  they  possess.  That,  sir,  is  an  homage  to 
God,  who  bestows  them.  But  it  is  also  their  mis- 
fortune to  be  dissatisfied  with  the  means  and  op- 
portunities they  have  possessed  to  exercise  those 
gifts  to  great  national  purposes.  This  is  merely 
distrust  of  themselves.  The  world,  sir,  compre- 
hends the  uses  of  the  talents  of  great  statesmen, 
and  gives  them  credit  for  their  masterly  powers, 
without  asking  that  those  powers  should  be  tried 


66 

in   every  position  in   which   public   men   may  be 
placed. 

I  see  not  in  all  the  character,  gifts,  and  attain- 
ments of  Mr.  Webster,  any  illustration  of  the  Bri- 
tish orator's  exclamation,  relative  to  "the  shadows 
which  we  are ;"  nor  do  I  discover  in  the  splendid 
career  and  the  aims  of  his  lofty  ambition  any  thing 
to  prove  "  what  shadows  we  pursue." 

The  life  of  such  a  man  as  Daniel  Webster  is 
one  of  solid  greatness;  and  the  objects  he  pursued 
are  worthy  of  a  being  made  in  the  image  of  God. 
A  life  of  honorable  distinction  is  a  substantive  and 
permanent  object.  The  good  of  man,  and  the  true 
glory  and  happiness  of  his  country,  are  the  sub- 
stantial things,  the  record  of  which  generation 
hands  down  to  generation,  inscribed  with  the  name 
of  him  that  pursued  them. 

I  will  not,  sir,  trespass  on  this  House  by  any  at- 
tempt to  sketch  the  character,  or  narrate  the  ser- 
vices of  Mr.  Webster;  too  many  will  have  a  share 
in  this  day's  exercises  to  allow  one  speaker  so  ex- 
tensive a  range.  It  is  enough  for  me,  if,  in  obeying 
the  indications  of  others,  I  give  to  my  effort  the 
tone  of  respect  with  which  the  statesman  and  the 
patriot,  Webster,  was  regarded,  as  well  by  the 
nation  at  large  as  by  those  whom  I  have  the  honor 
to  represent  on  this  floor.  And  in  the  remarks  of 
those   whose  means  of  judging  have  been  better 


-•) 


67 

than  mine,  will  be  found  his  characteristics  of  social 
and  domestic  life. 

How  keenly  Mr.  Webster  relished  the  relaxa- 
tions which  public  duties  sometimes  allowed,  I  had 
an  opportunity  of  judging;  for  he  loved  to  call  to 
my  recollections  scenery  which  had  been  familiar 
to  me  in  childhood,  as  it  was  lovely  to  him  in  age. 
The  amusements,  in  which  he  gratified  a  manly 
taste  in  the  midst  of  that  scenery,  were  promotive 
of  physical  recuperation,  rendered  necessary  by  the 
heavy  demands  of  professional  or  official  life.  He 
was  stimulated  to  thought  by  the  activity  which 
the  pursuits  on  land  required,  or  led  to  deep  con- 
templation by  the  calmness  of  the  ocean  on  which 
he  rested.  Though  dying  in  office,  Mr.  Webster 
was  permitted  to  breathe  his  last  in  those  scenes 
made  classical  to  others  by  his  uses,  and  dear  to 
him  by  their  ministrations  to,  and  correspondence 
with,  his  taste. 

The  good  of  his  country  undoubtedly  occupied 
the  last  moments  of  his  ebbing  life ;  but  those  mo- 
ments were  not  disturbed  by  the  immediate  press- 
ure of  official  duties;  and  in  the  dignity  of  do- 
mestic quiet,  he  passed  onward;  and  while  at  a 
distance  communities  awaited  in  grief  and  awe  the 
signal  of  his  departure,  the  deep  diapason  of  the 
Atlantic  wave,  as  it  broke  upon  his  own  shore,  was 
a  fitting  requiem  for  such  a  parting  spirit. 


68 

MR.  BAYLY,  of  Virginia,  remarked:— 

I  had  been,  sir,  nearly  two  years  a  member  of 
Congress  before  I  made  Mr.  Webster's  acquaintance. 
About  that  time  a  proceeding  was  instituted  here, 
of  a  delicate  character  so  far  as  he  was  concerned, 
and  incidentally  concerning  an  eminent  constituent 
and  friend  of  mine.  This  circumstance  first  brought 
me  into  intercourse  with  Mr.  Webster.  Subse- 
quently, I  transacted  a  good  deal  of  official  business 
with  him,  some  of  it  also  of  a  delicate  character.  I 
thus  had  unusual  opportunities  of  forming  an  opi- 
nion of  the  man.  The  acquaintance  I  made  with 
him,  under  the  circumstances  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred, ripened  into  friendship.  It  is  to  these  cir- 
cumstances that  I,  a  political  opponent,  am  indebted 
for  the  honor,  as  I  esteem  it,  of  having  been  re- 
quested to  say  something  on  this  occasion. 

From  my  early  manhood,  of  course,  sir,  I  have 
been  well  acquainted  with  Mr.  Webster's  public 
character,  and  I  had  formed  my  ideal  of  him  as  a 
man ;  and  what  a  misconception  of  it  was  that 
ideal !  Earely  seeing  him  in  public  places,  in  fami- 
liar intercourse  with  his  friends,  contemplating  his 
grave  statue-like  appearance  in  the  Senate  and  the 
Forum,  I  had  formed  the  conception  that  he  was  a 
frigid  iron-bound  man,  whom  few  could  approach 
without  constraint ;  and  I  undertake  to  say  that — 
until  of  late  years,  in  which,  through  personal 
sketches  of  him  by  his  friends,  the  public  has  be- 


69 

come  acquainted  with  his  private  character — such 
was  the  idea  most  persons  who  knew  him  only  as  I 
did  formed  of  him.  Yet,  sir,  what  a  misconception  ! 
No  man  could  appreciate  Mr.  Webster  who  did  not 
know  him  privately.  No  man  could  appreciate  him 
who  did  not  see  him  in  familiar  intercourse  with  his 
friends,  and  especially  around  his  own  fireside  and 
table.  There,  sir,  he  was  confiding,  gay,  and  some- 
times downright  boyish.  Full  of  racy  anecdote,  he 
told  them  in  the  most  captivating  manner. 

Who  that  ever  heard  his  description  of  men  and 
things  can  ever  forget  them?  Mr.  Webster,  sir, 
attached  a  peculiar  meaning  to  the  word  taUc,  and 
in  his  sense  of  the  term  he  liked  to  talk ;  and  who 
that  ever  heard  him  talk  can  forget  that  talk? 
Sometimes  it  was  the  most  playful  wit,  then  the 
most  pleasing  philosophy.  Mr.  Webster,  sir,  owed 
his  greatness,  to  a  large'extent,  to  his  native  gifts. 

Among  his  contemporaries  there  were  lawyers 
more  learned,  yet  he  was,  by  common  consent,  as- 
signed the  first  place  at  the  American  bar.  As  a 
statesman,  there  were  those  more  thoroughly  in- 
formed than  he,  yet  wrhat  statesman  ranked  him  ? 
Among  orators  there  were  those  more  graceful  and 
impressive,  yet  what  orator  wras  greater  than  he  ? 
There  were  scholars  more  ripe,  yet  who  wrote  better 
English?  The  characteristics  of  his  mind  were 
massive  strength  and  classic  beauty  combined,  with 
a  rare  felicity.     His  favorite  studies,  if  I  may  judge 


70 

from  his  conversations,  were  the  history  and  the 
Constitution  of  his  own  country,  and  the  history 
and  the  Constitution  of  England;  and  I  undertake 
to  say  that  there  is  not  now  a  man  living  who  was 
more  perfectly  familiar  with  both.  His  favorite 
amusements,  too,  if  I  may  judge  in  the  same  way, 
were  field-sports  and  out-door  exercise.  I  have  fre- 
quently heard  Mr.  Webster  say,  if  he  had  been  a 
merchant,  he  would  have  been  an  out-door  partner. 
Mr.  Webster  was,  as  all  great  men  are,  eminently 
magnanimous.  As  proof  of  this,  see  his  whole  life, 
and  especially  that  crowning  act  of  magnanimity 
— his  letter  to  Mr.  Dickinson.  Mr.  Webster  had 
no  envy  or  jealousy  about  him — as  no  great  man 
ever  had.  Conscious  of  his  own  powers,  he  envied 
those  of  no  one  else.  Mr.  Calhoun  and  himself  en- 
tered  public  life  about  the  same  time ;  each  of  them 
strove  for  the  first  honors  'of  the  republic.  They 
were  statesmen  of  rival  schools.  They  frequently 
met  in  the  stern  encounter  of  debate,  and  when  they 
met  the  conflict  was  a  conflict  of  giants.  Yet  how 
delightful  it  was  to  hear  Mr.  Webster  speak,  as  I 
have  heard  him  speak,  in  the  most  exalted  terms  of 
Calhoun ;  and  how  equally  delightful  it  was  to  hear 
Mr.  Calhoun,  as  I  have  heard  him,  speak  in  like 
terms  of  Webster.  On  one  occasion,  Mr.  Calhoun, 
speaking  to  me  of  the  characteristics  of  Webster  as 
a  debater,  said  that  he  was  remarkable  in  this — that 
he  always   stated  the  argument   of  his   antagonist 


71 

fairly,  and  boldly  met  it.  He  said  he  had  even 
seen  him  state  the  argument  of  his  opponent  more 
forcibly  than  his  opponent  had  stated  it  himself; 
and,  if  he  could  not  answer  it,  he  would  never  un- 
dertake to  weaken  it  by  misrepresenting  it.  What 
a  compliment  was  this,  coming,  as  it  did,  from  his 
great  rival  in  constitutional  law !  I  have  also  heard 
Mr.  Calhoun  say  that  Mr.  Webster  tried  to  aim  at 
truth  more  than  any  statesman  of  his  day. 

A  short  time  since,  Mr.  Speaker,  when  addressing 
the  House,  at  the  invitation  of  the  delegation  from 
Kentucky,  on  the  occasion  of  Mr.  Clay's  death,  I 
used  this  language : 

"  Sir,  it  is  but  a  short  time  since  the  American 
Congress  buried  the  first  one  that  went  to  the  grave 
of  that  great  triumvirate,  (Calhoun.)  We  are  now 
called  upon  to  bury  another,  (Clay.)  The  third, 
thank  God !  still  lives ;  and  long  may  he  live  to  en- 
lighten his  countrymen  by  his  wisdom,  and  set  them 
the  example  of  exalted  patriotism.  [Alas !  how 
little  did  I  think,  when  I  uttered  these  words,  that 
my  wish  was  so  soon  to  be  disappointed.]  Sir,  in 
the  lives  and  characters  of  these  great  men  there  is 
much  resembling  those  of  the  great  triumvirate  of 
the  British  Parliament.  It  differs  principally  in 
this :  Burke  preceded  Fox  and  Pitt  to  the  tomb. 
Webster  survives  Clay  and  Calhoun.  When  Fox 
and  Pitt  died,  they  left  no  peer  behind  them.  Web- 
ster still  lives,  now  that  Calhoun  and  Clay  are  dead, 


@- 


72 

the  unrivalled  statesman  of  his  country.  Like  Fox 
and  Pitt,  Clay  and  Calhoun  lived  in  troubled  times. 
Like  Fox  and  Pitt,  they  were  each  of  them  the 
leader  of  rival  parties.  Like  Fox  and  Pitt,  they 
were  idolized  by  their  respective  friends.  Like  Fox 
and  Pitt,  they  died  about  the  same  time,  and  in  the 
public  service;  and,  as  has  been  said  of  Fox  and 
Pitt,  Clay  and  Calhoun  died  with  'their  harness 
upon  them.'     Like  Fox  and  Pitt — 

With  more  than  mortal  powers  endow' d, 
How  high  they  soar'd  above  the  crowd ; 
Theirs  was  no  common  party  race, 
Jostling  by  dark  intrigue  for  place — 
Like  fabled  gods  their  mighty  war 
Shook  realms  and  nations  in  its  jar. 
Beneath  each  banner,  proud  to  stand, 
Look'd  up  the  noblest  of  the  land. 

•I*  *r*  5|C  5JC  JjC  3(C 

Here  let  their  discord  with  them  die. 
Speak  not  for  those  a  separate  doom 
Whom  fate  made  brothers  in  the  tomb; 
But  search  the  land  of  living  men, 
Where  wilt  thou  find  their  like  again  f" 

I  may  reproduce,  on  this  occasion,  with  propriety, 
what  I  then  said,  with  the  addition  of  the  names  of 
Burke  and  Webster.  The  parallel  that  I  undertook 
to  run  on  that  occasion,  by  the  aid  of  a  poet,  was  not 
designed  to  be  perfect,  yet  it  might  be  strengthened 
by  lines  from  another  poet.  For  though  Webster's 
enemies  must  admit,  as  Burke's  satirist  did,  that — 

Too  fond  of  the  right,  to  pursue  the  expedient, 


73 

yet,  what  satirist,  with  the  last  years  of  Webster's 
life  before  him,  will  undertake  to  shock  the  public 
sentiment  of  America  by  saying,  as  was  unjustly 
said  of  Burke  by  his  satirist — 

Born  for  the  universe,  be  narrow' d  his  mind, 

And  to  party  gave  up  what  was  meant  for  mankind. 

Mr.  Speaker,  during  the  brief  period  I  have  served 
with  you  in  this  House,  what  sad  havoc  has  Death 
made  among  the  statesmen  of  our  republic !  Jack- 
son, Wright,  Polk,  McDuffie,  and  Sergeant,  in  pri- 
vate life,  and  Woodbury,  from  the  bench,  have  gone 
to  the  tomb !  We  have  buried  in  that  short  time 
Adams,  Calhoun,  Taylor,  and  Clay,  and  we  are  now 
called  on  to  pay  the  last  tribute  of  our  respect  to 
the  memory  of  Daniel  Webster.  Well  may  I  ask, 
in  the  language  of  the  poem  already  quoted — 

Where  wilt  thou  find  their  like  again  ? 

There  was  little,  I  fear,  in  the  history  of  the  lat- 
ter days  of  some  of  those  great  men  to  whom  I  have 
alluded  to  inspire  the  young  men  of  our  country  to 
emulate  them  in  the  labors  and  sacrifices  of  public 
life.  Yet  there  never  was  a  time  when  there  was  a 
stronger  obligation  of  patriotic  duty  on  us  to  emu- 
late them  in  that  respect  than  now. 

They  followed  one  race  of  revolutionary  states- 
men— they  were  the  second  generation  of  statesmen 


74 

of  our  country.  With  one  or  two  brilliant  excep- 
tions, that  second  generation  has  passed  away,  and 
those  that  now  have  charge  of  public  affairs,  with 
the  exceptions  referred  to,  are  emphatically  new 
men.  God  grant  we  have  the  patriotism  to  follow 
faithfully  in  the  footsteps  of  those  who  preceded  us ! 

MR.  STANLEY  said  :— 

Mr.  Speaker  : — I  feel  that  it  is  proper  and  be- 
coming in  me,  as  the  representative  of  a  people  who 
claim  the  reputation  of  Daniel  Webster  as  part  of 
their  most  valuable  property,  to  add  a  few  words  to 
what  has  been  already  said.  I  do  not  think  that  it 
is  necessary  to  his  fame  to  do  so.  I  have  no  idea  of 
attempting  a  eulogy  on  Daniel  Webster.  It  would 
be  presumptuous  to  attempt  it.  Long  before  my 
entrance  into  public  life,  I  heard  from  an  illustrious 
citizen  of  my  native  State,  (the  late  Judge  Gaston,) 
that  Mr.  Webster,  who  was  his  contemporary  in 
Congress,  gave  early  indication  of  the  wonderful 
abilities  which  he  afterward  displayed.  There 
were  giants  in  the  land  in  those  days,  and  by 
them  Webster  was  regarded  as  one  who  would 
earn  great  distinction.  Before  he  reached  the 
height  of  his  fame  the  young  men  in  our  land  had 
been  taught  to  respect  him.  This  was  the  feeling 
of  those  who  came  forward  on  the  stage  of  life  with 
me.  In  what  language,  then,  can  I  express  my  ad- 
miration of  those  splendid  abilities  which  have  de- 


75 

lighted  and  instructed  his  countrymen,  and  charmed 
the  lovers  of  republican  government  throughout  the 
earth  ?  How  shall  I  find  fitting  terms  to  speak  of 
his  powers  in  conversation — his  many  good  qualities 
in  social  life — his  extraordinary  attainments — his 
exalted  patriotism  ?     Sir,  I  shrink  from  the  task. 

Gifted  men  from  the  pulpit,  eloquent  senators  at 
home  and  in  the  Senate,  orators  in  Northern  and 
Southern  and  Western  States,  have  gratified  the  pub- 
lic mind  by  doing  honor  to  his  memory.  To  follow 
in  a  path  trodden  by  so  many  superior  men  requires 
more  boldness  than  I  possess.  But  I  cannot  forbear 
to  say  that  we  North  Carolinians  sympathize  with 
Massachusetts  in  her  loss.  We  claim  him  as  our 
Webster,  as  we  do  the  memories  of  her  great  men 
of  the  Revolution.  Though  he  has  added  glory  to 
the  bright  name  of  Massachusetts,  he  has  been  the 
defender  of  that  Constitution  which  has  surrounded, 
with  impregnable  bulwarks,  the  invaluable  blessings 
of  civil  liberty.  When  he  made  Massachusetts 
hearts  throb  with  pride  that  she  had  such  a  man  to 
represent  her  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  we,  too, 
felt  proud  at  her  joy,  for  her  glory  is  our  glory. 

Faneuil  Hall  is  in  Boston,  and  Boston  in  Massa- 
chusetts; but  the  fame  of  those  whose  eloquence 
from  those  walls  fanned  the  fire  of  liberty  in  the 
hearts  of  American  patriots,  and  made  tyrants  trem- 
ble on  their  thrones,  is  the  fame  of  the  American 
people. 


76 

Fanueil  Hall !  Daniel  Webster  !  What  glorious 
associations  do  these  words  recall ! 

The  American  patriot  who  hereafter  performs  his 
pilgrimage  to  that  time-honored  Hall,  and  looks  at 
his  portrait,  appropriately  placed  there,  will  involun- 
tarily repeat  what  the  poet  said  of  the  Webster  of 
poets : 

Here  Nature  listening  stood,  while  Shakspeare  play'd, 
And  wonder' d  at  the  work  herself  had  made. 

Daniel  Webster  was  to  the  revolutionary  patriots 
of  Massachusetts,  to  the  founders  of  our  Constitution 
in  the  Old  Thirteen  States,  what  Homer  was  to  the 
ancient  heroes.  Their  deeds  would  have  lived  with- 
out him.  Their  memories  would  have  been  che- 
rished by  their  countrymen  had  Webster  never 
spoken.  But  who  can  say  that  his  mighty  ability, 
his  power  of  language,  unequalled  throughout  the 
world — who  can  say  he  has  not  embalmed  their 
memories,  painted  their  deeds  in  beautiful  drapery, 
and  by  the  might  of  his  genius  held  them  up  in  cap- 
tivating form  to  his  countrymen  ?  Who  is  there  on 
the  habitable  globe,  wherever  man  is  struggling  for 
freedom,  wherever  Washington's  name  is  heard  and 
reverenced — who  is  there  who  will  ever  read  the 
history  of  those  immortal  men  who  achieved  our 
liberties,  and  founded  with  almost  supernatural  wis- 
dom our  Constitution  and  republican  form  of  govern- 


77 

ment — who  can  ever  read  the  history  of  these  great 
men  without  saying,  they  achieved  much,  they  per- 
formed great  and  noble  deeds,  but  Webster's  oratory 
has  emblazoned  them  to  the  world,  and  erected 
monuments  to  their  memories  more  enduring  than 
marble  ?  Can  man  aspire  to  higher  honor  than  to 
have  his  name  associated  with  such  men?  This 
honor,  by  universal  consent,  Daniel  Webster,  the 
son  of  a  New  Hampshire  farmer,  has  secured. 
Wherever  liberty  is  prized  on  earth,  in  whatever 
quarter  of  the  globe  the  light  of  our  "great  republic" 
is  seen,  sending  its  cheering  beams  to  the  heart  of 
the  lonely  exile  of  oppression — in  that  land,  and  to 
that  heart,  will  the  name  of  Webster  be  held  in 
grateful  remembrance.  As  we  cannot  think  of 
the  founders  of  our  republic  without  thinking  of 
Webster,  we  cannot  speak  of  his  services  properly 
except  in  his  own  words.  How  many  of  us,  in  and 
out  of  Congress,  since  his  death,  have  recalled  his 
memorable  words,  in  his  eulogium  on  Adams  and 
Jefferson.     Hear  him  in  that  discourse  : 

"Adams  and  Jefferson,  I  have  said,  are  no  more. 
As  human  beings,  indeed,  they  are  no  more.  They 
are  no  more,  as  in  1776,  bold  and  fearless  advocates 
of  independence ;  no  more,  as  on  subsequent  periods, 
the  head  of  the  government ;  no  more,  as  Ave  have 
recently  seen  them,  aged  and  venerable  objects  of 
admiration  and  regard.  They  are  no  more.  They 
are  dead.     But  how  little  is  there  of  the  great  and 


78 

good  which  can  die!  To  their  country  they  yet 
live,  and  live  for  ever.  .  They  live  in  all  that  per- 
petuates the  remembrance  of  men  on  earth ;  in  the 
recorded  proofs  of  their  great  actions;  in  the  off- 
spring of  their  intellect ;  in  the  deep  and  grave  lines 
of  public  gratitude,  and  in  the  respect  and  homage 
of  mankind.  They  live  in  their  example;  and  they 
live,  emphatically,  and  will  live,  in  the  influence  which 
their  lives  and  efforts,  their  principles  and  opinions, 
now  exercise,  and  will  continue  to  exercise,  on  the 
affairs  of  men,  not  only  in  their  country,  but  through- 
out the  civilized  world.  A  superior  and  commanding 
human  intellect,  a  truly  great  man,  when  Heaven 
vouchsafes  so  rare  a  gift,  is  not  a  temporary  flame,  burn- 
ing bright  for  a  while,  and  then  expiring,  giving  place 
to  returning  darkness.  It  is  rather  a  spark  of  fervent 
heat  as  well  as  radiant  light,  with  power  to  enkindle 
the  common  mass  of  human  mind ;  so  that  when  it 
glimmers  in  its  own  decay,  and  finally  goes  out  in 
death,  no  night  follows,  but  it  leaves  the  world  all 
light,  all  on  fire,  from  the  potent  contact  of  its  own 
spirit.  Bacon  died,  but  the  human  understanding, 
roused  by  the  touch  of  his  miraculous  wand  to  a 
perception  of  the  true  philosophy,  and  the  just  mode 
of  inquiring  after  truth,  has  kept  on  its  course,  suc- 
cessfully and  gloriously.  Newton  died,  yet  the 
courses  of  the  spheres  are  still  known,  and  they  yet 
move  on  in  the  orbits  which  he  saw,  and  described 
for  them  in  the  infinity  of  space." 


79 

Who  can  hear  these  words  without  feeling  how 
appropriate  and  applicable  to  the  great  American 
statesman?  To  his  country  he  "still  lives/'  and 
will  live  for  ever. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  fear  to  go  on.  The  thoughts 
which  are  in  my  mind  are  not  worthy  of  the  great 
subject.  I  have  read  and  heard  so  much  from  the 
able,  learned,  and  eloquent  of  our  land  in  his 
praise,  I  shrink  from  attempting  to  add  any  thing 
more. 

In  justice  to  the  feelings  of  those  I  represent,  I 
felt  solicitous  to  cast  my  pebble  on  the  pile  which 
was  erecting  to  his  memory.  They  venerate  his 
memory,  not  only  for  those  services  to  which  I  have 
referred,  but  also  for  his  later  exhibitions  of  patriot- 
ism, in  stemming  the  torrent  of  temporary  excite- 
ment at  home.  The  year  1852,  Mr.  Speaker,  will 
long  be  memorable  in  the  annals  of  our  country. 
In  this  year,  three  great  lights  of  our  age  and  our 
country  have  gone  out.  But  a  few  months  since,  the 
voice  of  lamentation  was  heard  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific  shore  that  Henry  Clay  was  no  more. 
The  sounds  of  sorrow  had  scarcely  died  in  our  ears, 
when  inexorable  Death,  striking  with  remorseless 
hand  at  the  cottage  of  the  peasant  and  the  palace 
of  the  great — Death,  as  if  to  send  terror  to  our  souls 
by  showing  us  that  the  greatest  in  place  and  in  ge- 
nius are  but  men — has  destroyed  all  that  was  mor- 
tal of  Daniel  Webster. 


».- 


80 

And  even  while  we  were  celebrating  his  obse- 
quies, the  sagacious  statesman,  the  wise  counsellor, 
the  pure  and  upright  man,  John  Sergeant,  of  Penn- 
sylvania— the  man  who  more  happily  combined  the 
suaviter  in  modo  with  the  fwtiter  in  re  than  any 
public  man  I  ever  met  with — the  model  of  that  best 
of  all  characters,  a  Christian  gentleman,  always  lov- 
ing "whatsoever  things  are  true,  honest,  just,  lovely, 
and  of  good  report," — John  Sergeant  is  called  to  that 
beatific  vision  reserved  for  "the  pure  in  heart." 

Let  it  be  our  pleasure,  as  it  will  be  our  duty,  to 
teach  those  who  come  after  us  to  imitate  the  private 
virtues,  remember  the  public  services,  and  cherish 
the  reputation  of  these  illustrious  men.  And  while 
we  do  this,  let  us  cherish,  with  grateful  remem- 
brance and  honest  pride,  the  thought  that  these 
great  men  were  not  only  lovers  of  liberty,  friends  of 
republican  institutions,  and  patriots  devoted  to  the 
service  of  their  country,  but  that  they  were,  with 
sincere  conviction,  believers  in  the  Christian  reli- 
gion. Without  this  praise,  the  Corinthian  column 
of  their  characters  would  be  deprived  at  once  of  the 
chief  ornament  of  its  capital  and  the  solidity  of  its 
base. 

I  fervently  hope  the  lessons  we  have  had  of  the 
certainty  of  death  will  not  be  lost  upon  us.  May 
they  make  us  less  fond  of  the  pleasures  of  this 
world,  so  rapidly  passing  away !  May  they  cause 
those  who  are  in  high  places  of  trust  and  honor  to 


81 

remember,  now  in  the  days  of  health,  manhood,  and 
prosperity,  that 

The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  power, 
And  all  that  beauty,  all  that  wealth  e'er  gave, 

Await  alike  th'  inevitable  hour — 

The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave ! 

MR.  TAYLOR,  of  Ohio,  said  :— 

Mr.  Speaker: — In  the  Congress  of  1799,  when 
the  announcement  of  the  death  of  General  Washing- 
ton was  made  in  this  body,  appropriate  resolutions 
were  passed  to  express  the  high  appreciation  of  the 
representatives  of  the  people  of  the  pre-eminent 
public  services  of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  and 
profound  grief  for  their  loss.  His  death  was  con- 
sidered a  great  national  calamity ;  and  in  the  beau- 
tiful and  appropriate  language  of  General  Henry 
Lee,  who  prepared  the  resolutions  introduced  by 
John  Marshall,  he  was  proclaimed  as  having  been 
"  First  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts 
of  his  countrymen."  The  whole  nation  cordially 
responded  to  that  sentiment ;  and  from  that  day  to 
this,  the  high  eulogium  has  been  adopted  by  the 
people  of  the  United  States  of  America,  as  the  just 
and  expressive  tribute  to  the  greatest  man,  take  him 
all  in  all,  that  our  country  had  then  or  has  since 
produced.     Time  rolled  on;    and  the  sentiment  of 


82 

his  own  country  has,  of  late  years,  become  the  intel- 
ligent opinion  of  the  whole  world.  And  in  proof  of 
this  I  might  cite,  among  others,  the  deliberately 
recorded  opinions  of  the  late  Premier  Guizot,  of 
France,  and  the  great,  though  eccentric  writer  and 
statesman,  Brougham,  of  England,  men  of  vast 
celebrity. 

Our  country,  then  in  its  infancy,  has  grown  up  in 
little  more  than  half  a  century,  to  be  the  first  re- 
public in  the  world,  having  increased  from  three  or 
four  millions  to  nearly  twenty-five  millions  of  inha- 
bitants, and  extending  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  During  the  present  year,  the  nation 
has  been  called  upon  to  mourn  the  death  of  two  of 
her  distinguished  citizens ;  two  men  born  since  the 
establishment  of  our  independence,  cradled  in  the 
Kevolution,  and  brought  up,  as  it  were,  at  the  feet 
of  the  fathers  of  the  republic,  whose  long  public 
career  has  attracted  to  them  and  all  that  concerned 
them,  more  than  to  any  others,  the  admiration,  the 
gratitude,  and  the  hope  of  the  whole  people.  These 
men — Henry  Clay  and  Daniel  Webster — have 
both  been  gathered  to  their  fathers  during  the  pre- 
sent year.  When,  during  our  last  session,  the  offi- 
cial announcement  was  made  in  this  House  of  the 
death  of  Henry  Clay,  I  listened  with  heartfelt  sym- 
pathy to  the  eloquent  and  beautiful  eulogies  then 
pronounced  upon  his  character,  and  felt  in  the  ful- 


83 

ness  of  my  heart  the  truest  grief.  As  one  of  the 
representatives  of  the  great  and  prosperous  State 
of  Ohio  on  this  floor,  I  desired  them  to  mingle  my 
humble  voice  with  those  who  eagerly  sought  to 
honor  his  memory.  But  no  opportunity  was  af- 
forded me,  and  I  could  only  join  with  meekness  of 
spirit  and  a  bowed  mind  in  the  appropriate  funeral 
honors  which  were  rendered  to  the  illustrious  dead 
by  Congress.  And  I  only  now  desire  to  say,  that 
no  State  in  this  Union,  not  even  his  own  beloved 
Kentucky,  more  deeply  felt  the  great  loss  which,  in 
the  death  of  Mr.  Clay,  the  nation  had  sustained, 
than  the  State  of  Ohio ;  and  the  public  meetings 
of  her  citizens,  without  distinction  of  party,  in  the 
city  in  which  I  reside,  and  many  other  parts  of  the 
State,  expressed,  in  appropriate  and  feeling  terms, 
their  high  estimate  of  his  great  public  services,  and 
their  profound  grief  for  his  death. 

And  now,  sir,  since  the  adjournment  of  Congress, 
at  its  last  session,  he  who  co-operated  with  Mr. 
Clay  in  the  legislative  and  executive  departments, 
at  various  times,  for  nearly  forty  years,  and  to 
whom,  with  his  great  compatriot,  more  than  to  any 
others,  the  people  looked  for  counsel,  and  for  secu- 
rity and  peace — he,  too,  has  paid  the  debt  of  nature, 
and  will  never  more  be  seen  among  men.  The 
formal  announcement  in  this  body  of  the  death  of 
Daniel  Webster    has   elicited  just    and   eloquent 


84 

tributes  to  his  memory,  and  brings  freshly  to  our 
view  the  beautiful  traits  of  his  private  character, 
and  his  great  and  long-continued  public  services  in 
the  Senate  and  in  one  of  the  executive  depart- 
ments of  the  government.  In  all  that  is  said  in 
commendation  of  the  private  virtues  and  pre-emi- 
nent public  services  of  Daniel  Webster,  I  heartily 
concur ;  and  I  wish,  sir,  that  I  could  find  words 
sufficiently  strong  and  appropriate  to  express  what, 
in  my  judgment,  were  the  great  claims  of  these  two 
eminent  men  upon  the  admiration  and  upon  the 
gratitude  of  their  countrymen.  They  were  in 
many  respects  exemplars  for  the  young  men  of  our 
country.  Born  (without  any  of  the  advantages  con- 
ferred sometimes  by  wealth  and  position)  in  humble 
life;  struggling  with  adversities  in  their  earlier 
years  ;  triumphing  over  all  obstacles  by  their  native 
strength  of  intellect,  by  their  genius,  and  by  their 
persevering  industry  and  great  energy,  they  placed 
themselves  in  the  very  first  rank  of  American 
statesmen,  and  for  more  than  forty  years  were  the 
great  leaders  of  the  American  mind,  and  among 
the  brightest  guardians  of  their  common  country. 

Sir,  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  have  known,  for 
many  years,  both  these  great  patriots,  and  to  have 
enjoyed  their  friendship ;  and  I  think  I  but  express 
the  general  sentiment  of  the  intelligent  people  of 
this  great  country  when  I  say  that  our  country  is, 


85 

in  a  very  large  degree,  indebted  to  them  for  its  pre- 
sent unexampled  prosperity;  for  its  peace  and  do- 
mestic happiness;  and  for  its  acknowledged  power 
and  high  renown  all  over  the  world.  In  my  judg- 
ment, the  words  of  the  national  legislature,  so  beau- 
tifully and  aptly  embodying  the  true  character  of 
the  Father  of  his  Country,  were  not  more  appropri- 
ately uttered  then  in  reference  to  him  than  they 
might  be  applied  now,  so  far  as  relates  to  the  civil 
affairs  and  action  of  our  government  within  the  last 
forty  years,  to  Henry  Clay  and  Daniel  Webster  ; 
and  it  may  be  properly  said  of  them,  that  within 
that  time  they  have  been,  emphatically,  "First  in 
war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  their 
countrymen."  But,  sir,  the  great  men  of  a  country 
must  die ;  and,  if  the  great  men  of  a  country  are 
pre-eminently  good  men,  their  loss  is  the  more  se- 
verely felt.  Nothing  human  is  perfect;  and  I  am 
far  from  believing,  much  less  from  asserting,  that 
the  eminent  men  of  whom  I  have  spoken  were  with- 
out defects  of  character.  But  I  believe  their  vir- 
tues so  far  outweighed  the  imperfections  of  their 
nature,  that  to  dwell  upon  such  defects,  on  this  occa- 
sion, would  be  as  unprofitable  and  futile  as  to  object 
to  the  light,  and  heat,  and  blessings  of  the  glorious 
sun,  guided  by  the  Omnipotent  hand,  because  an 
occasional  shadow  or  spot  may  be  seen  on  his  disk. 
These  guardians  of  our  country  have  passed  away; 
but  their  works  and  good  examples  are  left  for  our 


86 

guidance,  and  are  part  of  the  lasting  and  valued 
possessions  of  this  nation.     And,  Mr.  Speaker^ 

When  the  bright  guardians  of  a  country  die, 
The  grateful  tear  in  tenderness  will  start ; 

And  the  keen  anguish  of  a  reddening  eye 
Disclose  the  deep  affliction  of  the  heart. 


The  question  was  put,  and  the  resolutions  were  unani- 
mously adopted ;  and 

The  House  adjourned  till  to-morrow  at  twelve  o'clock  M. 


THE   END. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DAT^ 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN     INITIAL    FINE      OF     25     CENT* 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.00  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


* C    5 


_D 

APR  32  1950 


LD  21-50m-8 -32 


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